Carroll Cole [serial killer]

Calvin

Welcome to the infamous edition of the Headstones and Microphones where we use AI to step into the past through a researched, first-person simulation done through creative story telling of history's most infamous people. Now, let’s meet our guest.

Calvin

Welcome to the podcast. Let’s start at the absolute beginning, where the public narrative hasn’t yet distorted who you were. When and where were you born, and what was your given name?

White Male Guest

I was born as Carroll Edward Cole on May 9, 1938, in Sioux City, Iowa. Most people just called me Eddie.

Calvin

What was your hometown and home life like as a child?

White Male Guest

My family didn't stay in Iowa very long. When I was just a toddler, we moved out to California because my father found work in a shipyard. But home wasn't a safe place for me. My father went off to fight in the war when I was young, leaving me with my mother, Vesta. She was incredibly cruel and abusive. She would drag me along to these wild parties, and if I ever did anything to upset her or ruin her day, she would beat me mercilessly. She used to force me to wear dresses as a punishment and a way to humiliate me. To get away from her, I would crawl and hide in the dark space underneath our house. Even when my father came back from the war, he didn't protect me. He was completely dominated by her, and on one occasion, he even punched me right in the face.

Calvin

Was there a story behind your name, or a nickname that stuck with you?

White Male Guest

Having the given name Carroll was a nightmare for me as a boy. The other neighborhood children thought it was a sissy name. They taunted me, mocked me, and picked fights with me constantly because of it. It just added to the humiliation I felt every day, both at school and at home.

Calvin

What were you like as a child, and how many years of schooling did you actually attend?

White Male Guest

I was deeply troubled, isolated, and filled with a lot of quiet rage that I kept buried. I acted out in dark ways quite early. When I was only eight years old, I drowned one of my classmates, a boy named Duane Eugene Owen, in a lake in Richmond, California. The authorities back then just thought it was a tragic accident, so I was never caught for it. I managed to stay in school through my early teenage years, but by the time I was fifteen, everything was completely unraveling.

Calvin

What’s a decision that changed everything for you, but felt small at the time?

White Male Guest

When I was fifteen, I made the choice to start stalking girls and prowling around Nichols Park near our house. I was consumed by these dark, violent fantasies. Around that same time, I tried to have a normal relationship with a girl, but her parents rejected me completely because they saw me as a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. That rejection, paired with the hatred I harbored for my mother, set something off in me.

Calvin

Let's talk about your early run-ins with the law. Before the world knew your name for your most infamous actions, what was your very first arrest or interaction with law enforcement, and what were the consequences?

White Male Guest

My very first official criminal offense happened when I was fifteen, when I was caught stealing from a liquor store. After that, my life became a revolving door of dead-end jobs and trouble. When I turned nineteen, I thought maybe the military would straighten me out, so I joined the Navy. But that didn't last. I ended up stealing weapons and received a bad conduct discharge. From there, the arrests just kept piling up for all sorts of things—drunk driving, theft, arson, and assault.

Calvin

At what moment did you realize your name would never be forgotten?

White Male Guest

It didn't happen through a sudden national media frenzy during my active years. For a very long time, I moved from state to state completely under the radar. The real moment the world realized who I was occurred in Dallas, Texas, in November of 1980. I was taken into custody near the scene of a murder. The police actually thought the woman had died of natural causes and they were about to let me walk out the door. But I couldn't keep it inside anymore. I confessed to them right then and there, and that's when the full scope of what I had done broke out to the public.

Calvin

Did fame make you more dangerous, or did it simply expose who you already were?

White Male Guest

I never had fame while I was committing my crimes; I operated in total obscurity, fueled by alcohol and rage. The notoriety only came after I was locked up and chose to speak. The dangerous reality of who I was had been fully formed in my childhood. When I drank, a switch would flip, and I would target women who I perceived were being unfaithful to their partners or who were heavily drinking. In my twisted mind, they reminded me of my mother, and it felt like I was acting out my hatred for her over and over again.

Calvin

Who do you believe betrayed you first: a person, society, or your own instincts?

White Male Guest

It started with my mother. Her abuse and the things she forced me to witness completely broke me before I ever even had a chance to grow up. But later on, it was my own mind and my severe alcoholism that betrayed me. I drank heavily to drown out the noise, but the drinking only unleashed the worst, most violent parts of my instincts.

Calvin

What was your most unique habit or a random fact about you that would surprise people?

White Male Guest

When I was a young man in my twenties, the weight of my thoughts became so heavy that I actually tried to end my own life twice. Later, during my years of confinement, I turned toward religion and ended up converting to Catholicism before the end of my life.

Calvin

What did the public never understand about the pressure you were under at the time?

White Male Guest

People looked at me as a monster, but they didn't see the absolute disgust, fear, and sorrow I would feel immediately after the fog of alcohol cleared and I realized what I had done. I was trapped in a horrific cycle driven by an intense, deep-seated psychological hatred that I couldn't control or escape on my own.

Calvin

Did you have any known rivalries that defined your career?

White Male Guest

I didn't have rivalries with gangs or specific lawmen. My only real adversary was the memory of my mother, and the internal war raging inside my own head.

Calvin

What personal battles were you fighting privately while the world was watching?

White Male Guest

My entire adult life was a battle against severe, chronic alcoholism and deeply disturbing psychological delusions. I was constantly drifting, unable to hold down a life, completely consumed by an internal darkness.

Calvin

When the law finally closed in, how exactly were you brought to justice? Walk me through the final arrest, the charges that ultimately stuck, and the legal outcome of your trials.

White Male Guest

After my arrest and confessions in Texas in 1980, I was convicted there for three murders and given a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. But things didn't end there. In February of 1984, I was extradited to Nevada to face charges for the strangulation deaths of two women, Kathlyn Blum and Marie Cushman. In October of 1984, the Nevada court found me guilty of first-degree murder on two counts and sentenced me to death. When the judge handed down the execution order, I looked right at him and said, "Thanks, Judge."

Calvin

What’s the craziest rumor ever told about you, and what part of your story has been exaggerated the most?

White Male Guest

Because I traveled so much and lived such a transient lifestyle, people have attributed dozens of unsolved murders to me across multiple states. While I did claim responsibility for anywhere between 16 to 35 victims in my confessions, I was only ever officially convicted of five adult murders.

Calvin

What is the biggest misconception people have about your life?

White Male Guest

The misconception is that I was trying to run from justice or beat the system. In reality, when the end came, I wanted it to be over. On the day of my execution, anti-death penalty groups and even some fellow inmates tried to file appeals to commute my sentence. But I actively protested against them. I didn't want their help; I wanted the punishment.

Calvin

When, where, and how did you pass away?

White Male Guest

I passed away on December 6, 1985, at 2:10 in the morning. I was executed by lethal injection at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City, Nevada, at the age of 47.

Calvin

Eddie, do you have any closing remarks about the interview or the stories you shared that you would like to share with the listeners before signing off?

White Male Guest

I just hope people look at my story and understand how deep the scars of childhood abuse can go, and how it can completely destroy a human soul from the inside out. I welcomed the end of my life because it was the only way to finally stop the damage.

Calvin

And that wraps up another conversation from beyond the grave. Thanks for joining us on The Headstones and Microphones Podcast. Remember—Do better with the life you have been given and choose to do good in this life. Please help spread the word by sharing and following the pod.