Interview with a Killer Season 3 Episode 1

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Transcript

00:00:00Good morning, Mr. Williams.

00:00:09We're going to come in and put a microphone on you.

00:00:11That's okay.

00:00:12Yeah.

00:00:12All right, great.

00:00:13Yeah, it's ready for the mic.

00:00:16I'll never forget it.

00:00:18It's one of the things I just, I dream about it over and over again.

00:00:23James is staggering down the beach, and he turns around, and he just screams, why?

00:00:29And I shoot him.

00:00:31Right in the middle of the beach.

00:00:33I drag him back over to the site where his truck was parked.

00:00:38He's on his back, right?

00:00:39I mean, he's alive.

00:00:41And I kneel down on top of him, and I strangle him.

00:00:46And I'm just choking him, just watching the blood vessels break in his eyes.

00:00:52Just choking him, and the whole time I'm just thinking, just die already.

00:00:57Would you just die?

00:01:00Adam Williams is the stuff of nightmares.

00:01:04A drug dealer, a thief, a rapist, and a killer.

00:01:10By his own accounting, he was a self-made monster.

00:01:13But today, he claims to be a whole new man.

00:01:17I just recently found Christ.

00:01:20It's just like something, like, passed over me.

00:01:23And it's called the Holy Spirit.

00:01:24I know God is real, and that's why I know that change is possible.

00:01:28The question now is, can a man so steeped in his own mayhem ever be changed or saved?

00:01:36It seems like you figured out a way to kind of wipe the slate clean, literally shrouding

00:01:42your crimes in faith.

00:01:44Isn't it convenient that you commit despicable acts, get caught, and then claim Jesus and go to heaven?

00:01:55You know, a lot of felons find Jesus in jail.

00:01:58We're humans.

00:01:59We're born into a life of sin, right?

00:02:01I enjoyed that sin immensely.

00:02:04Are you really a changed man, a saved Christian, or is this some kind of stunt?

00:02:34Are you really a changed man?

00:03:04The Texas Panhandle is flat as far as the eye can see.

00:03:18The land doesn't rise or fall.

00:03:21Its dangers hide in plain sight.

00:03:24I'm here to interview a one-time outlaw who was violent, fearsome, and like the gunslingers

00:03:30who once prowled these wide-open spaces, beguiling to those who crossed his path, including his

00:03:36two murder victims.

00:03:37His vicious double homicide made national news.

00:03:41James Butler III and his wife, Michelle Butler, were found in a shallow grave on Padre Island

00:03:46in Texas.

00:03:47The sheriff says there is no word currently on suspects.

00:03:50Two bodies found buried at a South Texas beach have been identified as a missing couple from

00:03:56New Hampshire.

00:03:57James Butler had retired from military service and found new love late in life.

00:04:03He and his wife, Michelle, decided to travel across America in their trailer to find peace

00:04:07and tranquility among its treasured parks and beaches.

00:04:11Instead, they found their way to Padre Island, Texas in October 2019 and parked next to a devilishly

00:04:19charming fugitive and his wife, Adam Curtis Williams, and Amanda Nover.

00:04:24It would be the butlers' last stop before news of their deaths spread.

00:04:3033-year-old Adam Curtis Williams and 32-year-old Amanda Nover, both of Utah, have been charged.

00:04:36The rest comes just a few days after this image showed Williams crossing the border into Mexico,

00:04:41driving the butler's truck and RV.

00:04:44Williams pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

00:04:49His accomplice and now ex-wife, Amanda Nover, also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder

00:04:55and is currently serving a 20-year sentence.

00:04:58He's where to tell the truth, the whole truth, and other truth, so help you guys.

00:05:01Yeah.

00:05:02But because there were no trials for either culprit, questions about the shocking crime remain.

00:05:08How did this innocent couple become ensnared in the killer's web of deceit?

00:05:13And why did the tattoo fugitive murder them?

00:05:15I headed to a state prison just outside Amarillo to find out.

00:05:22You're going to unshackle him after you put the mic on.

00:05:24Got it.

00:05:25Got it.

00:05:25Today, Adam Williams says he's ready to talk about his crimes for the first time.

00:05:31But he does so, he claims, after a miraculous Christian salvation as a whole new man.

00:05:37Was the killer in front of me really a repentant, changed man or a Texas-sized manipulator?

00:05:43All right, good to go?

00:05:46Good to go, Mike.

00:05:47Adam Williams was about to make his case, and I was about to enter the psyche of a self-made monster.

00:05:57Thank you, Mr. Williams, for meeting me here today.

00:06:00Yeah, of course.

00:06:01Thank you for this opportunity.

00:06:03We're here, Mr. Williams, to try and understand the mindset and motivations behind your actions in this case.

00:06:12Okay.

00:06:13Why did you want to talk to us today?

00:06:16Well, there was a number of reasons, actually.

00:06:19The first thing I guess I want to say is, you know, I've been approached by multiple different documentaries.

00:06:27I've never made a statement.

00:06:28I've never said anything whatsoever about the crimes, period.

00:06:33This is the first time you're talking to me ever.

00:06:34This is the very first time.

00:06:35Including in court.

00:06:37100%.

00:06:37I've never made a statement at all.

00:06:40I was too sick.

00:06:41I've been consumed by demons most of my life.

00:06:45I will let them run my body.

00:06:47I just recently found Christ.

00:06:50And through him, I have been able to control the demons and the just wild thoughts and just uncontrollable emotions that I've been plagued with.

00:07:06I never believed in God before.

00:07:10And then I had, like, an experience here in this prison that just totally changed my life.

00:07:17It happened about two years ago, Williams says, in the midst of a binge of hard drug use.

00:07:22I had been put into segregation.

00:07:25I was really strung out on drugs, meth, and the K-2.

00:07:32Here in this maximum security prison?

00:07:34Yes.

00:07:35I had been awake for days.

00:07:37And I had, like, a full-on hallucination of James and Michelle and my father in my cell with me.

00:07:50And James and Michelle forgave me for killing them.

00:07:55And my dad was there as well the whole time.

00:07:59And I ended up trying to commit suicide.

00:08:04I chopped my wrist to pieces.

00:08:06They found me in my cell.

00:08:08But I passed out in a pool of blood and took me to medical and sewed me up.

00:08:15That's when Williams says he saw the light.

00:08:19Literally.

00:08:19My window was stuffed full of books.

00:08:23And one of the books that was rolled up and stuffed in the window was a Bible.

00:08:27And I crawled up on my bed.

00:08:29I couldn't use this hand.

00:08:30And I pulled it.

00:08:30And it had a bunch of condensation.

00:08:32The Bible had become moldy up there.

00:08:35And I pulled that wet Bible out of the window and had laid it down on my bed.

00:08:39And I was trying to open it up to look at it.

00:08:42And it was really wild because when I pulled that open, it was just like a beam of light came shooting into the cell.

00:08:48From the window, obviously, you know.

00:08:51And I just sat there.

00:08:52And honestly, I just broke down.

00:08:54And I prayed to God for the first time.

00:08:58And that was my first experience.

00:09:01And I've been reading the Bible ever since.

00:09:03One moment of epiphany?

00:09:05Yes, basically.

00:09:06Yes.

00:09:07Well, now, this is fascinating.

00:09:08Because in the Christian faith, when redemption is granted, the saved person is considered a whole new entity.

00:09:17Right.

00:09:19Wiped clean of the old hymn.

00:09:21Right.

00:09:22I think it says somewhere in Romans, you have to die to truly find yourself.

00:09:26It says something like that in there.

00:09:27And that was really profound to me when we read that.

00:09:30The skeptic in me wonders if William's epiphany is more an act of convenience than conversion.

00:09:37A way to absolve himself of a lifetime of violence and criminality.

00:09:41Or could it be that this self-proclaimed monster, steeped in decades of deadly sin, has genuinely reformed?

00:09:48I don't know what's in your heart, Adam.

00:09:53Only you and your God know what's in your heart.

00:09:56But are you really a changed man?

00:10:00A saved Christian?

00:10:03Or is this some kind of stunt?

00:10:08What would be the purpose of it?

00:10:10Make yourself look less evil?

00:10:11Attract attention?

00:10:13I don't know.

00:10:13I'm just asking because you have a lot of sins to live down and a long record of manipulation.

00:10:22So I'm asking you, are you really a changed man?

00:10:25I 100% am and I'm a work in progress is what I am.

00:10:30I try every day to be better than I was the day before.

00:10:34It's clear Adam Williams possesses intelligence and a silver tongue.

00:10:40Besides the dead bodies he left in his wake, there are scores of others he sweet-talked, cajoled, and deceived with his guile.

00:10:48He may be on a charm offensive today.

00:10:50Are you trying to charm me now, here today?

00:10:53No, I'm trying to answer your questions as honestly as I possibly can.

00:11:00Do you feel like I'm trying to charm you?

00:11:04Would you mind just doing a clap?

00:11:11This will be used to sync the cameras, yeah.

00:11:14Got it.

00:11:15All right, good to go?

00:11:17Adam Curtis Williams' long career in violent crime culminated in a double murder and an international manhunt,

00:11:24landing him in this Texas prison for life.

00:11:27I've been consumed by demons most of my life.

00:11:30I just recently found Christ.

00:11:32He's talking for the first time about his life of crime and claims he's now a new man, a saved soul,

00:11:40ready to take responsibility for the harm he's done and for becoming, in his words, a monster.

00:11:45It's a story he's been publicly telling on the online platform Substack, a biography called Hellbound,

00:11:54how he went from a hell of his own creation to an eventual spiritual awakening.

00:11:59Today I want to ask you to talk about the old you.

00:12:02Yes, I understand.

00:12:04Even behind glass, Williams cuts an intimidating figure.

00:12:08His entire body is covered with inked warnings not to cross him,

00:12:13and he himself has lost count of the brutal battery he's dished out, both in and out of prison.

00:12:19But his story begins in a seemingly ordinary home in suburban Utah.

00:12:24You're born into a home, it sounds like, that was both really good and really bad.

00:12:29Correct.

00:12:30You had hard-working parents.

00:12:32Yeah.

00:12:32You had camping trips.

00:12:34Yes.

00:12:34Hooked on phonics.

00:12:35Yes.

00:12:36You even had a koi pond.

00:12:37Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:12:38Built that koi pond.

00:12:40But in his journal, Williams explains it was not a pleasant childhood.

00:12:44Your father, you write about how your father beat you and your mother.

00:12:48Yes.

00:12:49You say you loved him and idolized him, but also intensely feared him.

00:12:54Yes, I mean, 100%.

00:12:57Unbelievably afraid of him.

00:13:00Drug and alcohol addicted and a violent rageaholic.

00:13:04Yes, 100%.

00:13:05What drugs was he doing?

00:13:07Cocaine.

00:13:08Uh-huh.

00:13:09And he would just lose it.

00:13:10Fear, love, and violence seemed like they were all mixed up together in your early life.

00:13:18Yes.

00:13:19How do you think that shaped your personality?

00:13:22I think it made me sick.

00:13:30Made me view the world in a way that led to what I did.

00:13:36That abuse, you say, set you on a course of destruction.

00:13:40It was my own actions.

00:13:42I'm not trying to downplay or rationalize, justify anything.

00:13:48Me and my drug addiction and my not wanting to come back to prison is what led me to do the things I did.

00:13:55I take full accountability for why I'm in here, and I deserve to be in here.

00:14:01You say that you've been a hustler since fifth grade.

00:14:05Yeah, yeah.

00:14:06Your own teenage criminal history is extensive.

00:14:09Yes.

00:14:10Drug use, right?

00:14:12Yep.

00:14:12Drug selling.

00:14:13Yep.

00:14:14Lots of guns.

00:14:15Yep.

00:14:16Assaults.

00:14:16Yep.

00:14:17Theft.

00:14:18Yep.

00:14:19DUI.

00:14:20Yes, sir.

00:14:20You were allowed as a juvenile to take part in work release programs.

00:14:27That was an opportunity to turn things around, but you...

00:14:30Didn't take them.

00:14:32You describe in your writing the armed robbery of a drug dealer.

00:14:38Yeah, okay.

00:14:38Who you beat with a handgun and then ran over with your car.

00:14:42Yes.

00:14:43Yep.

00:14:44Did that kind of violence come easily to you?

00:14:47It did.

00:14:48I actually tried to shoot him, too.

00:14:51But the gun was on safety.

00:14:53Thank Heavenly Father.

00:14:55You describe in your writing that it thrilled you to take such risks with your life and your freedom.

00:15:03Yes.

00:15:04Did it thrill you to take such risks with other people's lives?

00:15:07Yes.

00:15:08It was an unbelievable rush.

00:15:10The whole thing.

00:15:11Before I even got there, the drive out there was a rush.

00:15:14The entire thing was a whole different kind of high.

00:15:19Did you get addicted to that high?

00:15:21I actually looked forward to situations like that to come up so that I could do those things.

00:15:28Eventually, the police get a tip and they raid your drug lair.

00:15:32Yes.

00:15:33Right?

00:15:33And you catch a federal case.

00:15:35Yep.

00:15:35When you're sentenced, you're 24, sentenced to 10 years.

00:15:39A hundred months, yeah.

00:15:41At the sentencing hearing, you told the judge that you took full responsibility for your actions

00:15:46and that you would make good use of your time.

00:15:49And the first part of that was true.

00:15:51Right.

00:15:52The second part of that did not end up being true.

00:15:54The second part of that, you did not.

00:15:56He did not.

00:15:57That man that you say you used to be.

00:15:59Right.

00:16:00He showed himself to be skilled and criminally minded in prison, right?

00:16:06No matter where I am, I want to do the best I can.

00:16:11Best in what sense?

00:16:12I'm a very competitive person.

00:16:15Just to live the best life I could possibly live.

00:16:19Williams writes that his 10-year sentence in a federal prison helped to forge an even more

00:16:24violent criminal.

00:16:26In prison, you're always looking for a way to hustle and take advantage of the system?

00:16:32I used to be, yes.

00:16:33You maintained a heroin habit in a federal prison.

00:16:38I sure did.

00:16:39For how long?

00:16:40The entire time I was in there.

00:16:42Is it that easy?

00:16:43No, but I used to have this saying, where there's a will, there's a way.

00:16:48If you're willing to put in the work in anything in life, you'll eventually get what you want.

00:16:56Whether it be a college degree or getting heroin in or whatever it is.

00:17:00You also started some gory, bloody fights.

00:17:05Yeah, started and defended myself in many, many fights.

00:17:12Yes, I started an unbelievable amount.

00:17:15Dozens more?

00:17:16Oh, yes, yes.

00:17:17Including one that you detail in your writing, which is just a horrifying story about an attack

00:17:24that you provoked on your cellmate who accidentally broke your radio.

00:17:29Well, yeah, I 100% started that and ended up finishing it.

00:17:37But that's where this came from.

00:17:39Scarface.

00:17:41Right.

00:17:41You say I proceeded to beat the living f*** out of this dude.

00:17:45When I finished with him, his lips looked like some animal had chewed on them.

00:17:49They were so split open that his face looked like the elephant man.

00:17:52And my hands were, like, blown up like rubber gloves.

00:17:56Yep.

00:17:58That's what happened.

00:17:59I mean, that is a level of violence that very few people can relate to.

00:18:06Right.

00:18:07You said you became an animal in that setting.

00:18:11That particular situation, something happened to me.

00:18:15And I was never the same again after that.

00:18:19You said, all I wanted to do was work out, get high, and hurt people.

00:18:25That's 100% correct.

00:18:27I couldn't wait for people to give me a reason to f*** them up.

00:18:31Yep.

00:18:32To this day, I was and forever am a convict.

00:18:37Yep.

00:18:38When were you first diagnosed with psychiatric issues?

00:18:42I don't remember how old I was.

00:18:44My parents were separated.

00:18:48But I was diagnosed with ADD.

00:18:50That was the first thing.

00:18:52And then after my father committed suicide, I had severe depression, bipolar.

00:18:58I was diagnosed with a number of different things over the years.

00:19:01Antisocial?

00:19:01Antisocial, yep.

00:19:03You continued treatment throughout your incarceration.

00:19:06Are you still under psychiatric treatment?

00:19:08Yes.

00:19:09You're still medicated?

00:19:11Yeah.

00:19:12I take Prozac.

00:19:14Any antipsychotics?

00:19:16No.

00:19:17I used to take them, but not here.

00:19:21This prison, TDC, is a lot different than any of the other prisons I've ever been in.

00:19:28By the time he left federal prison, Williams was many things, including, in his words, a monster.

00:19:34But not yet a murderer.

00:19:38That was about to change.

00:19:40You finished your 10-year sentence in eight years, which is amazing, given your record in prison.

00:19:48Mm-hmm.

00:19:48And you released in December 2018?

00:19:52Yeah, that sounds about right.

00:19:54How would you describe your mindset at that point after your release?

00:19:57I had gotten out, and it was just like the world was so different.

00:20:02I went in before smartphones.

00:20:05I came out after them.

00:20:07It was like I came out into some sort of, like, twilight zombie land, where everybody's

00:20:12just stuck at it, looking at their screen everywhere I went.

00:20:15It's like nobody was, like, interacting with each other.

00:20:17Everybody on the bus was just looking at their phones, and I didn't feel like I belonged in

00:20:22society, and I was afraid.

00:20:25What were you afraid of?

00:20:27Just freedom.

00:20:30Now, you've said that the prison system made you a monster, so I'm guessing you were not

00:20:36rehabilitated there.

00:20:37Oh, no, not at all.

00:20:40Were you worse?

00:20:42Unbelievably worse.

00:20:43I came out a complete, total different person than when I went in.

00:20:49Just much worse.

00:20:50Now, freed on the streets of Utah, William set his sights on a new kind of unsuspecting

00:20:57prey, women.

00:21:00You put yourself on some dating apps, right?

00:21:04Tinder and one called Plenty of Fish.

00:21:06Yeah.

00:21:06Now, underneath all the ink, I can see you're a handsome guy.

00:21:12Did you think that women would respond to this image on the dating apps?

00:21:19What image?

00:21:20Well, the image of you covered in tattoos, you know, on your face, on your scalp.

00:21:26My point is, you look scary.

00:21:29And given your relationship with violence and fear, was that intentional?

00:21:34Are you trying to engender fear with your image?

00:21:38In prison, yes.

00:21:40Yeah.

00:21:41On the streets, not so much.

00:21:43But women do respond on your, when you go on the dating apps.

00:21:49Yeah.

00:21:50I mean, it's surprising to me, because if I was a woman swiping on a dating app and you

00:21:56come up, you're the last person.

00:22:00Okay.

00:22:01You understand what I'm saying, right?

00:22:03Yeah, I do.

00:22:04Right?

00:22:04I mean, I'm a woman.

00:22:06I'm vulnerable in this kind of power dynamic.

00:22:10You're a big man.

00:22:11And you just look, you know, like someone...

00:22:16It's like trouble, right?

00:22:17Yeah.

00:22:18Yeah.

00:22:19Yeah.

00:22:20Trouble is an understatement.

00:22:23Williams would become an online dating predator, deploying his uncanny charm and brutality

00:22:29in equal measure.

00:22:30Crimes not discussed in the Substack Journal he calls Hellbound.

00:22:35There's a missing chapter from Hellbound.

00:22:38The one about rape and sodomy, which are among your crimes, right?

00:22:43Are you ready to come clean about that?

00:22:45Everything in my body was screaming to leave.

00:22:50Don't knock on that door.

00:22:52Don't go up those steps.

00:22:55Go back home to your kids.

00:22:56And I knocked on that door.

00:23:07In 2018, Adam Curtis Williams was a terrifying mix of charm and violence.

00:23:13Fresh out of federal prison, with a new lease on a life of crime.

00:23:18What was your point of view on crime and violence at that point?

00:23:22Oh, totally acceptable.

00:23:24Totally acceptable.

00:23:25Yeah.

00:23:25Normal.

00:23:25Yes, very normal, yeah.

00:23:29Williams relished his newfound freedom and set out to make up for lost time by entering

00:23:34the online dating pool, quickly meeting 32-year-old Amanda Nova.

00:23:39You meet Amanda, right?

00:23:41Tell me about that.

00:23:42I met her.

00:23:45I went and hung out with her.

00:23:48Would hang out every day after that.

00:23:49William's future wife and accomplice later described his magnetism in a police interview.

00:23:55And he sent me messages and I seen his pictures and he was covered in tattoos and I was like,

00:24:01uh-uh, that guy's nothing but trouble.

00:24:04But I talked to him and I talked to him and he was persistent and he was like, well, I want to meet you.

00:24:09He was so adamant about it.

00:24:11Like, he's, that's his presence.

00:24:13He's very, like, suave, I guess.

00:24:15He's very charismatic.

00:24:17Nova took the bait and moved in with Williams, along with her three-year-old daughter, Ryan.

00:24:23But Nova wasn't the only woman Williams lured with his charms around that time.

00:24:28Stephanie Corona had just gotten out of an 18-year relationship when she decided to give online dating a try.

00:24:44It didn't take her long to match with Adam Williams.

00:24:47There was something about him.

00:24:49He smiled.

00:24:51It was like it lit up a room.

00:24:52And just the way he talked to you, he felt like he truly saw you and heard you and, you know, wanted to connect in a way.

00:25:01It seemed like there was a heart in there somewhere.

00:25:05Despite the rough edges, you could kind of see past the tattoos and tough guy appearance.

00:25:11But I was completely unaware that he had spent all that time in prison.

00:25:17Stephanie says one night, Williams tried to persuade her to come over for a threesome with him and Amanda Nova.

00:25:27I wanted nothing to do with it.

00:25:30He finally got the hint that I wasn't interested.

00:25:35But he called a little while after and basically apologized and said that the female had left.

00:25:42And, um, he asked me to come over and I kept telling him no.

00:25:49But then ultimately I gave in despite a gut feeling that I had.

00:25:57Her gut sense persisted as she arrived at Williams' front door.

00:26:01Everything in my body was screaming to leave.

00:26:08Don't knock on that door.

00:26:10Don't go up those steps.

00:26:12Go back home to your kids.

00:26:16And I knocked on that door.

00:26:18And Adam was standing there.

00:26:24And I just remember kind of shutting down my emotions and just kind of standing in a shell.

00:26:33I froze in time.

00:26:36I...

00:26:37My body was telling me to go.

00:26:41But it's like my legs couldn't move.

00:26:43What happened next was a vicious sexual assault that ended only when Williams passed out and Stephanie was able to escape.

00:26:51I felt trapped, I guess, in a way.

00:26:56And, uh, he pulled me inside immediately.

00:27:00Started undressing me.

00:27:02Right from the door closing.

00:27:04And he's so big and tall and just towered over me.

00:27:08And I felt like I had no chance.

00:27:13The next day, battered and bruised, she went to the hospital for treatment and police opened an investigation.

00:27:20The police department asked if I would do a, what they call a confrontation call.

00:27:26Where we try and get Adam on the phone to see if he would give any info or any little bits of remembering anything that might have occurred.

00:27:40And I was so traumatized.

00:27:45I was still extremely scared.

00:27:48I didn't know how I would feel hearing his voice on the phone.

00:27:54In a way, I'd hope he wouldn't answer.

00:27:57But he did answer.

00:27:58Hello?

00:28:06Having to respond to that voice of a person that had just assaulted and harmed you, it was really hard.

00:28:15Do you have a minute to talk?

00:28:19Can we talk about what happened?

00:28:21You physically messed me up on the inside.

00:28:24Like, I've got bruises all over my body.

00:28:28My breasts, heart, they were attacked.

00:28:31My thighs have, like, marks everywhere.

00:28:37My abdomen, my lacerations in my vagina, like, I just, if it wasn't right, it shouldn't have happened that way.

00:28:47I'm not going to talk about this on the phone.

00:28:51You can tell he's had a criminal past.

00:28:55He knows the process.

00:28:56And he wasn't going to say anything on the phone, just in case it was being recorded.

00:29:03Williams' online journal, Hellbound, makes no mention of his sexual assault on Stephanie Corona or on others.

00:29:12There's a missing chapter from Hellbound, the one about rape and sodomy, which are among your crimes, right?

00:29:20Are you ready to come clean about that?

00:29:22Oh, yeah.

00:29:23What happened to her that night?

00:29:24We had extremely rough sex, and she had told me to stop doing certain acts throughout it, probably three or four different times, and I would continue doing them.

00:29:39She told police you invited her over, you answered the door drunk and naked.

00:29:46Yeah.

00:29:46And that you raped and sodomized her with your hand or fist so invasively that you tore her inside.

00:29:55Okay.

00:29:56He also forced her to perform oral sex on him by straddling her face and choking her repeatedly.

00:30:03Does that sound right?

00:30:05Yes, that does sound right.

00:30:06Amanda later told police in her interrogation that you did the same thing to her when you were in your so-called blackout state of intoxication.

00:30:19Another woman also told police you raped and beat her.

00:30:23That's three women, which would make you a serial rapist.

00:30:27Mm-hmm.

00:30:28Are there others?

00:30:29Yeah.

00:30:30I mean, that is a level of cruelty and violence that is shocking to the conscience.

00:30:38Right.

00:30:39How do you account for that, Adam?

00:30:41I don't know.

00:30:42Meantime, Amanda Nova and her daughter Ryan had discovered that William's charisma was a mask for cruelty.

00:30:50Throughout 2019, police were called to their home for domestic violence.

00:30:54You promised yourself you wouldn't be like your dad, violent, abusive to your own family.

00:31:02You talk about that in Hellbound.

00:31:04Yeah.

00:31:04Did you brutalize Amanda and expose Ryan to the same kind of domestic violence that you were exposed to?

00:31:13Amanda says you frequently smacked her, strangled her twice, threatened her.

00:31:20One occasion, you're in the car and he reached over Ryan and hit me.

00:31:25Everything blacked out.

00:31:27I couldn't see.

00:31:28I couldn't hear.

00:31:29I never hit her in front of Ryan.

00:31:31And I believe she said that, but I'd never hit her in front of Ryan.

00:31:36Did I hit her?

00:31:37Yes.

00:31:37In front of Ryan?

00:31:38No.

00:31:39But if you're brutalizing or threatening or there's fear and violence in the home?

00:31:45Right.

00:31:45I mean, you know better than anyone, right?

00:31:48You know what that could do to that little girl.

00:31:50How could you do that?

00:31:52I mean, how could I kill the butlers?

00:31:56Stephanie Corona's case against Williams escalated and he quickly felt the heat.

00:32:01The state ended up pressing charges.

00:32:05My bail bondsman had called me and told me that they had filed these charges.

00:32:09And that's when I went on the run.

00:32:11That's why you went on the run?

00:32:12Yeah.

00:32:13That day.

00:32:14That same day.

00:32:15I actually never went back to my house.

00:32:17So now you're married to Amanda.

00:32:19You're stepfather to Ryan.

00:32:22Little Ryan.

00:32:23And within two days of the wedding, you're on the run.

00:32:28Oh, yeah.

00:32:28I was definitely on the run.

00:32:29Yeah.

00:32:30The fugitive Williams will put his devilish charm to use again as he flees the law and

00:32:36ultimately the country.

00:32:38Even if it means murder.

00:32:40Once we got down here, I wanted a gun.

00:32:43If they pulled me over, I wanted to shoot it out.

00:32:47You were going to shoot it out?

00:32:47I wanted to.

00:32:48I wanted that.

00:32:51No doubt about it.

00:32:52No, no.

00:32:53This is what was going to happen.

00:32:55Okay.

00:32:55Before I get started, are there any weapons in the vehicle?

00:32:58No weapons?

00:32:59With Williams on the loose, no one would be safe.

00:33:09Accused of a brutal rape, the self-described monster, Adam Curtis Williams, is on the run

00:33:15and out of his mind.

00:33:17Alongside his new wife, Amanda Nover, and her daughter, Ryan, Williams flees the state

00:33:21of Utah in a borrowed, beat-up Chevy truck, hauling an old trailer.

00:33:26You hit the road, you're heading to Texas.

00:33:28Right.

00:33:29I didn't know where we were going to go.

00:33:31We were just leaving.

00:33:33I devised that plan along the way.

00:33:37They end up on Padre Island, Texas, a popular beach south of Corpus Christi, where they plan

00:33:43to settle in for a couple of weeks.

00:33:46But first, the fugitive obtains a firearm at a local gun show.

00:33:51You get to Texas, you buy a gun.

00:33:54Once we got down here, well, really all along the way, I wanted a gun.

00:34:00I wanted it for the purpose, if they pulled me over, I wanted to shoot it out.

00:34:04You were going to shoot it out?

00:34:05I wanted to.

00:34:07It wasn't, I wanted that.

00:34:09I was just waiting for them to pull me over.

00:34:11What about the fact that you have your family in the car?

00:34:14Okay, well, I had planned on exactly what I was going to do to ensure that they didn't

00:34:21get hurt.

00:34:21And it almost happened here on Padre Island, because I got pulled over by a lady for not

00:34:28having my seatbelts on, on the beach.

00:34:31You weren't wearing a seatbelt.

00:34:32Oh, I'm sorry.

00:34:34We're just...

00:34:35Okay, before I get started, are there any weapons in the vehicle?

00:34:38No.

00:34:39No weapons?

00:34:40Can I get your driver's insurance?

00:34:43With his finger on the trigger, Williams plays it cool, while police run his license for

00:34:49warrants.

00:34:49This was the plan.

00:34:51If we get pulled over, they're going to come up to the car, they're going to ask for the

00:34:55license.

00:34:56I had my real license.

00:34:58I'm going to give it to them, they're going to go back to their car.

00:35:00Right.

00:35:01I'm going to get the gun out and make sure there's one in the chamber.

00:35:04When they come back to the car, they're going to ask me to get out of the car.

00:35:07Or they're going to get on the speaker thing, and a bunch more are going to come, and they're

00:35:10going to get me out of the...

00:35:12Tell me to get out, drop the keys out, whatever.

00:35:13And either one of those situations, I was going to move away from the vehicle and proceed

00:35:22to shoot it out with them.

00:35:24They both smoke the cigarettes?

00:35:26Yeah.

00:35:26Try to cover up the smell.

00:35:28I'm sitting like this, with the gun in my hand.

00:35:32And I told Amanda, when they come back up here to the car, they're going to ask me to get

00:35:37out.

00:35:37When I open the door to get out, I'm going to shoot this lady in the head.

00:35:41No doubt about it.

00:35:42No, no.

00:35:42This is what was going to happen.

00:35:46Utah 27, 16804.

00:35:50In fact, what you wanted to happen.

00:35:52Yeah.

00:35:52A part of me, yeah.

00:35:53As in being in here forever, yes, that was what I wanted.

00:35:56What I wanted to do was get away.

00:35:58Right, right.

00:35:59Obviously.

00:36:00So I was going to step out, shoot the first one, run towards the beach so that they shoot

00:36:05me, so that the bullets are towards the ocean, I mean.

00:36:08Right, right.

00:36:09I was going to get away from the vehicle and continue to shoot it out with the rest of

00:36:13them.

00:36:19All right, I'm just going to give you a warning today.

00:36:23They came back and gave me my license and I drove away.

00:36:27Luckily for her, she let me go.

00:36:30Another chance to take a different path.

00:36:34Right.

00:36:35These are law enforcement officers doing their job.

00:36:38They have families, they're people.

00:36:41I didn't care in the least bit.

00:36:43Having dodged that bullet, Williams and his accomplice wife soon confront a new problem.

00:36:48Their permitted two weeks on the beach was about to expire, and so was their old truck.

00:36:53The transmission had gone out on the truck, and I mean, it sounded like it was going to

00:36:58blow up going that fast because it wouldn't shift out of first gear.

00:37:01So that was a crisis.

00:37:02Right.

00:37:04Williams now needs a new truck, and he's willing to kill to get it.

00:37:08After I got the gun, I would literally drive up and down the beach at night, looking.

00:37:20Looking for Mark?

00:37:21Yep.

00:37:21Meanwhile, a friendly retired couple from New Hampshire pulled their shiny new truck

00:37:27and trailer onto the beach and directly into the fugitive's crosshairs.

00:37:32Williams and his wife were out of time and arguing about what to do next.

00:37:36She, well, she didn't understand if I was going to kill somebody, why just take a truck?

00:37:42Why not get a truck and a trailer?

00:37:43So when did you decide to rob and shoot the butlers?

00:37:46The next day, I said, I'll do it.

00:37:49Here they are, just being nothing but kind to you guys, and unbeknownst to them,

00:37:55they had no idea what was really going on.

00:38:04This one was at our wedding.

00:38:07We were doing all the family pictures.

00:38:10Um, that's the mother-son dance.

00:38:17What song did you guys dance to?

00:38:18No idea.

00:38:19She chose it, I don't remember.

00:38:22Michelle liked country.

00:38:23Um, she loved Miranda Lambert.

00:38:25That was her favorite.

00:38:27That's actually who we went to dance to.

00:38:28Bradley and Caitlin Roth are reminiscing about Brad's mother, Michelle Butler.

00:38:33Michelle was always there to help anybody.

00:38:38Like, if somebody needed something, like, she was open to helping, and so was Jim.

00:38:44Michelle had herself found new love late in life with 20-year Navy veteran Jim Butler.

00:38:51Jim was very funny and wanted to do pranks all the time, and my mother was not like that at any means.

00:38:59They were so good for each other.

00:39:01They were happy together.

00:39:04To attend Bradley and Caitlin's wedding, Michelle and Jim Butler had taken a break from road tripping across the country in their trailer.

00:39:11They just bought the camper, and then they were like, all right, we're gone.

00:39:16The Butlers headed west on a trip of a lifetime, taking odd jobs throughout the southwest, but checking in with their family almost daily.

00:39:25Every time they were somewhere, they'd post a picture or a video.

00:39:30They were just traveling the country, working odd jobs, living in their camper and truck.

00:39:37They were in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas.

00:39:41They were everywhere.

00:39:44Until they vanished.

00:39:45A lot of people have, like, a false sense of security.

00:39:50You never know who you're going to cross paths with.

00:39:54And ultimately, it ended up taking their lives.

00:40:00The Butlers were about to cross paths with Adam Curtis Williams.

00:40:04Their next stop would be their last.

00:40:07At what point did you first spot the Butlers and their truck and trailer?

00:40:12Okay, so they were camped next to us.

00:40:16Armed, dangerous, and desperate for a new ride to flee to Mexico,

00:40:21fugitive Adam Williams scanned Padre Island looking for a mark.

00:40:25And then one pulled up onto the beach right next to him with a gleaming pickup truck and trailer.

00:40:32After I got the gun, I would literally drive up and down the beach at night.

00:40:40Looking.

00:40:40Looking for a mark?

00:40:42Yep.

00:40:42And to be in total honesty, I was looking for, like, an older dude by himself.

00:40:48Had you met the Butlers at that point?

00:40:52So the day that they pulled up, we interacted with them.

00:40:58Yeah.

00:40:58You met them on the beach?

00:40:59Yeah.

00:41:00Yep.

00:41:00Did you kind of make friends with them?

00:41:03No.

00:41:03Use your charm to lure them in?

00:41:05No.

00:41:06Not at that point.

00:41:07At that point, I was so high and just in my head trying to figure out what I was going to do.

00:41:15And two cops had showed up and knocked on the trailer door and woke us up and was like, hey, your two weeks is up.

00:41:24That's it.

00:41:25So that was just, like, the breaking point, right?

00:41:28Two nights before that, me and her had gotten an argument about the Butlers.

00:41:34Oh, really?

00:41:34Yeah.

00:41:35What was the argument?

00:41:36She wanted that trailer.

00:41:38She wanted their trailer?

00:41:39She, well, she didn't understand, if I was going to kill somebody, why just take a truck?

00:41:44Why not get a truck and a trailer?

00:41:46Because our trailer was not, like, all that, right?

00:41:50That's what the newlyweds are arguing about.

00:41:52Right.

00:41:53Yeah.

00:41:53Twisted, right?

00:41:55So when did you decide to rob and shoot the Butlers?

00:41:58The next day, I agreed.

00:42:00Agreed?

00:42:00Yeah.

00:42:01Well, I said, I'll do it.

00:42:04We reached out to Amanda Nover to hear her side of the story, but she declined.

00:42:09The Butlers, did they do anything to offend you or piss you off?

00:42:13Absolutely not.

00:42:15All the opposite?

00:42:16They were very nice people.

00:42:18The day that we were arguing about killing them, James was running around playing racing and stuff with Ryan.

00:42:29It was totally innocent.

00:42:31I was just, in my mind, my, I am justifying what I'm about to do.

00:42:37100%.

00:42:38I'm like, oh, look how he's showing too much attention to the kid.

00:42:41He's a weirdo.

00:42:42And I'm going to kill him because of that.

00:42:43You're ascribing to him that he was being inappropriate?

00:42:47No, he wasn't at all.

00:42:49That was so I could do it.

00:42:51Here they are just being nothing but kind to you guys.

00:42:54And unbeknownst to them, you all are plotting.

00:42:58They had no idea what was really going on.

00:43:01Let me ask you this.

00:43:03So now we're at the night, right?

00:43:04The night of.

00:43:06It was the day of.

00:43:07The day of.

00:43:07I killed him in broad daylight at 10 o'clock in the day.

00:43:11In as much detail as you can remember, tell me what happened that day.

00:43:15In 2019, Adam Curtis Williams' vicious crimes ignited an international manhunt.

00:43:38James Butler III and his wife, Michelle Butler, were found in a shallow grave on Padre Island in Texas.

00:43:44He terrorized women.

00:43:46You physically and mentally, emotionally scarred me for life.

00:43:51Tried to kill cops.

00:43:53When I open the door to get out, I'm going to shoot this lady in the head.

00:43:56No doubt about it.

00:43:57No, no.

00:43:58This is what was going to happen.

00:44:01And left an innocent couple dead in his wake.

00:44:04I'm just thinking, just die already.

00:44:09Would you just die?

00:44:10Now, for the first time, he's talking about his mayhem.

00:44:15I've never made a statement at all.

00:44:17I was too sick.

00:44:19I've been consumed by demons most of my life.

00:44:22I will let them run my body.

00:44:24And the tattooed, self-proclaimed monster is claiming redemption.

00:44:28Finding God and forgiveness and grace was something that I needed.

00:44:35Just like when you do drugs, what do you say?

00:44:37If I pass you the joint and you hit it, hey, do you feel it?

00:44:41You know it's real because you felt it, right?

00:44:45Well, I now know God is real because I feel it.

00:44:50I feel the Holy Spirit.

00:44:51Or is he just another felon who found Jesus in jail?

00:44:57You know that falsely claiming faith in Christ is a cardinal sin.

00:45:02Oh, yeah.

00:45:03Isn't it convenient that you commit despicable acts, get caught, plead guilty, avoid the death penalty,

00:45:11and then claim Jesus to go to heaven?

00:45:15You know it's a cardinal sin.

00:45:45You know it's a cardinal sin.

00:46:15On the morning of October 25, 2019, James and Michelle Butler were enjoying another day of their dream retirement,

00:46:23road tripping across the country in their pickup truck and RV trailer.

00:46:27They settled on Padre Island, Texas, a tranquil shoreline just south of Corpus Christi.

00:46:32They had no idea that the young couple with the adorable toddler in the next trailer on the beach was plotting to shoot and rob them.

00:46:40A lifetime of crime and violence had now brought Adam Williams to the brink of murder.

00:46:47At 10 a.m. he brandished a handgun and his signature devilish smile.

00:46:52His wife, Amanda Nover, or Mandy, was waiting for his signal.

00:46:56In as much detail as you can remember, tell me what happened that day.

00:47:02All right, so the cops came and told us we had to leave.

00:47:05We packed up.

00:47:06I drove down the beach, turned around and drove back and parked in front of the butler's trailer.

00:47:13I have the gun on me.

00:47:14When Mandy had came back, I had shot the gun inside of our trailer with her down the beach to see if she could hear it.

00:47:22She couldn't hear it because of all the waves crashing and everything, right?

00:47:25So I had the gun on me.

00:47:27We pull up, and me and Amanda and Ryan get out.

00:47:31Michelle's laying on the thing.

00:47:33They come over.

00:47:34We're all talking.

00:47:35She's outside the trailer?

00:47:36Yeah, she's laying out on a lawn chair type thing, sunbathing.

00:47:40And James is doing his thing, milling about.

00:47:43So we got out and started talking to him.

00:47:46I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, this, that, and the other.

00:47:48While we're talking, Michelle's like, I'm going to go lay down and take a nap.

00:47:51And honestly, in my mind, I was like, perfect, because this is broad daylight.

00:47:56There's people all over the place.

00:47:58This is like during this red fish season here.

00:48:01And I'm just telling you, there's just people just driving by, people walking by, 10 o'clock in the day.

00:48:08So me and James are standing there smoking cigarettes, and I look over at Amanda, and she's like, oh, I'm going to go get something, make something for Ryan.

00:48:15She's hungry.

00:48:16So now it's just me and James, and I'm trying to get James to go inside the trailer.

00:48:19So I'm trying to manipulate this situation to try.

00:48:23I'm like, hey, you know, this, that, and the other.

00:48:25And he's just like not wanting to, right?

00:48:28So finally, like the conversation's like wearing out, right?

00:48:32And so he goes to go in.

00:48:35So I go and get it, go into our trailer.

00:48:38So now they're both in their trailer, right?

00:48:40Which is what I needed and wanted.

00:48:42And so I go get into our trailer, and I said, all right, you're serious?

00:48:50We're doing this?

00:48:52Amanda was like, you're not going to do it.

00:48:55And to that, I turned around, and I walked out, and I went and knocked on the door to the trailer.

00:49:01To James and Michelle's trailer.

00:49:02What follows is William's chilling accounting of the Butler murders.

00:49:10Who opened the door?

00:49:12James answered the door.

00:49:14And when he answered the door, I already had the gun.

00:49:19It was a little gun.

00:49:20It was in my back pocket.

00:49:22When he answered the door, I already had it in my hand.

00:49:25In my back pocket still, though.

00:49:27And when he answered the door, he's like, hey, what's up?

00:49:32I was like, hey, I had one more question about the Christmas tree place that you're going next.

00:49:38And he's like, oh, yeah, what's that?

00:49:40And I was like, do you have the information for it?

00:49:43And he says, yeah, I do.

00:49:44And as he turned, as soon as he turned, I shot him in the armpit.

00:49:50And he dropped.

00:49:52And I rushed up into the trailer.

00:49:55I had never been in the trailer yet, you know?

00:49:58And so I looked down the hall.

00:49:59And at the end is the bed.

00:50:02And there was Michelle.

00:50:04What state is she in at this point?

00:50:05She's sitting up in the bed with just a terrified look on her face.

00:50:10And I rushed down the hallway of the trailer.

00:50:16And she's like sitting, like starting to like kind of like get up a little bit from the bed.

00:50:21And I mean, I was there in a second, you know?

00:50:25It's like five big steps.

00:50:28And I shoot her.

00:50:30Where'd you shoot her?

00:50:31In the body.

00:50:33And then she like leaned back a little bit.

00:50:36And I shot her again.

00:50:37And I think that one hit her in like the hip area.

00:50:40And it's so wild.

00:50:41She like flew off of the bed and landed like she was kneeling down praying on the bed.

00:50:50Was she praying or was that just...

00:50:52No, no.

00:50:52It's just that when I shot her like in the hippish area, it flew her.

00:50:57She flew, right?

00:50:58Slid sideways off the bed and like turned and was just like, just like I am right here.

00:51:04But on her knees.

00:51:06Or I mean, her legs were under her.

00:51:08And I walked up to her.

00:51:11And I said, are you dead?

00:51:15And I poked her in the head with the tip of the gun.

00:51:18And she let out a moan and I shot her in the head.

00:51:21And I was standing there looking at her dead body.

00:51:25And she just, she stayed in that position.

00:51:27She just slumped down.

00:51:28And then I hear Amanda screaming my name.

00:51:35And when I turned around, James wasn't there anymore.

00:51:39He's running for his life.

00:51:42James Butler had survived the first shot from Williams and was making a brave bid to escape.

00:51:48So I go running out of the trailer and James is staggering down the beach.

00:51:54I can't believe nobody saw this.

00:51:56And I'll never forget it.

00:51:57And it's one of the things I just, I dream about it over and over again.

00:52:02As I go running up to him, he feels my presence.

00:52:05And he turns around and he just screams, why?

00:52:09James Butler wasn't going down without a fight.

00:52:12I hear Amanda screaming my name.

00:52:22And when I turned around, James wasn't there anymore.

00:52:26He's running for his life.

00:52:29So I go running out of the trailer and James is staggering down the beach.

00:52:34Anybody seeing this now?

00:52:36I can't believe nobody saw this.

00:52:38So I go running up to him.

00:52:41And I'll never forget it.

00:52:43It's one of the things I just, I dream about it over and over again.

00:52:47And as I go running up to him, he feels my presence, I guess, or hears me.

00:52:52I don't know.

00:52:53And he turns around.

00:52:54And he just screams, why?

00:52:58And I shoot him again.

00:53:00Right in the middle of the beach.

00:53:03Now I only have one bullet left.

00:53:05I put the gun in my back pocket and I drag him back over to the site where his truck was parked.

00:53:12He's on his back, right?

00:53:14And I'm just looking down at him and he's alive.

00:53:18And I kneel down on top of him and I strangle him.

00:53:23And I'm just choking him, just watching the blood vessels break in his eyes.

00:53:28Just choking him and the whole time I'm just thinking, just die already.

00:53:36Would you just die?

00:53:39And I'm just choking and choking away at him.

00:53:43It seemed like forever.

00:53:45My arms are trembling.

00:53:46It gets to the point my shoulders are shaking.

00:53:48I'm just, it's just like, I can tell he's still alive though.

00:53:51Is he fighting for life?

00:53:53Not at all.

00:53:54Not at all.

00:53:55He's just laying there, but he's alive still.

00:53:57All I can feel is through him, right?

00:54:01And finally, it's like he like shuddered and stopped like the little bit of wiggling and

00:54:08things he was doing and I continued to choke him.

00:54:12And then he like shuddered again.

00:54:16And I was like, okay, he has to be totally dead now, right?

00:54:20So I stand up and I'm standing over him.

00:54:23He's in between my legs.

00:54:24And Amanda comes out of the trailer and comes walking out.

00:54:29And she's like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this.

00:54:33I was like, I can't either.

00:54:35And James takes like this unbelievable just, it sounded just like that breath in.

00:54:41Death rattle.

00:54:42Yeah.

00:54:43And I was like, and it really, it startled me.

00:54:47I like jumped back and pulled the gun out of my pocket and shot him right between the eyes.

00:54:51And now there's a white truck driving by and me and Amanda are standing there.

00:55:03Now keep in mind that I had drug his body.

00:55:06So this is the beach right on this side, right?

00:55:10His truck's here.

00:55:12And we were right here.

00:55:13And their trailer's right here.

00:55:15So the truck driving by, his truck was shielding his body.

00:55:20And I'm just standing there.

00:55:22I'm thinking about the extra clip and where exactly it was.

00:55:27Because if these people stop, I'm going to kill them too.

00:55:31And they just drove right on by.

00:55:34Thank God.

00:55:36So then I'm tripped out.

00:55:39I'm like worried that these people saw it and didn't slow down or whatever because they were scared, you know?

00:55:46Because I shot outside now.

00:55:49I knew that they couldn't hear a gunshot in the trailer.

00:55:52But now I'm outside and there is people everywhere.

00:55:54And this is broad daylight.

00:55:55So in the back of James' truck was a tarp and a little, maybe five-foot-tall yellow ladder.

00:56:03So I pull the tarp out and cover his body with it and put the ladder on top of the tarp.

00:56:08I walk over to the trailer door and I close the trailer.

00:56:12James and Michelle's trailer door.

00:56:14And we get in the truck, in our truck, and leave.

00:56:19There's a $5 dollar store.

00:56:22And we parked in that parking lot until maybe 2-ish in the morning.

00:56:29I sat there and I pulled up the police scanner on the cell phone.

00:56:34And I sat there and I just waited.

00:56:36While we were there at the dollar store, Amanda had went in and bought headlamps.

00:56:42I had a shovel with me with our truck and trailer.

00:56:47Drove back down there.

00:56:48Parked in the exact same spot we had parked, right in front of their stuff, when I murdered them.

00:56:56Turned on PJ Mask, Ryan's favorite cartoon.

00:57:01Had her in her car seat, gave her the phone, and told her to watch her thing.

00:57:05Ryan was Amanda Nova's three-year-old daughter, on the run with her killer parents.

00:57:10Her own account of the crime is about to stun Adam Williams.

00:57:13Where was Ryan while all this was going on?

00:57:17Okay, well, Ryan was in the trailer with Amanda.

00:57:20Uh-huh.

00:57:20And when Amanda came out of the trailer, when I finally shot James in the head, Ryan was still inside the trailer.

00:57:28She never saw it.

00:57:29She later gave an account.

00:57:31Ryan did?

00:57:32Yes.

00:57:32Okay, would you tell me that?

00:57:33I didn't know that.

00:57:34Yeah, she later gave an account to somebody who was caring for her at the time.

00:57:39Okay.

00:57:40She said, obviously this is through the lens of a three-year-old, right?

00:57:45Yeah.

00:57:46The details may be off, but you'll get the sense of how she experienced this.

00:57:53Okay.

00:57:54So those people knocked on the door of the trailer.

00:57:56Mommy and Dad Adam started slapping and hitting them.

00:58:00They were bleeding.

00:58:01I told them to stop.

00:58:03Mommy said she wasn't going to stop.

00:58:05Two people was shooting guns, then her run outside.

00:58:12Her dad.

00:58:13Her dad?

00:58:15Whose dad, Ryan?

00:58:17Mommy and Dad Adam laid them in the sand to sleep, and we left with both trailers.

00:58:25Wow.

00:58:27What do you make of that?

00:58:29I think that's terrible that she saw her.

00:58:32Like, so she obviously, like, didn't, never slapped them or anything like that.

00:58:39But, I mean, she witnessed more than I thought she did.

00:58:43She could perceive something terrible was happening.

00:58:46Right.

00:58:47And really, part of what she said is kind of accurate, right?

00:58:53It's just distorted in the mind of a child, because while she was, she obviously probably saw me dragging the bodies, Michelle, out of the trailer.

00:59:06Maybe digging, maybe digging in the sand.

00:59:09Well, I don't know how she would see that, but she saw us with the shovels, so she just probably put, you know what I mean?

00:59:15Because when we had pulled back up and everything, the first thing was, what am I going to do with the bodies, right?

00:59:25So, the first thing I did was drag James back there.

00:59:29And then from dragging James, I realized that I needed to do something slightly different with Michelle.

00:59:35So, I, the tarp that I had James covered with, I put that over by the door of the trailer, and then took Michelle out of the trailer,

00:59:45put her on, put her on the tarp, and rolled her up in the tarp, and was dragging that back there towards the grave,

00:59:53and made it almost halfway, and I needed help with the, to get it the rest of the way.

00:59:59So, once they were both back there, I told Amanda, went back with Ryan, and I finished.

01:00:06I buried them.

01:00:07And I had gotten into their truck and trailer, and Amanda followed, and we drove to Corpus Christi,

01:00:14to a laundromat, bingo, like, little shopping place, and we emptied out their trailer, put all of our stuff in it,

01:00:23left, and I left the windows down and the keys in the ignition of our truck and trailer, hoping that somebody would take it.

01:00:30So, then we go to Mexico.

01:00:33Adam Williams and Amanda Nover were about to flee the country.

01:00:37And an international manhunt for the Heartless Killers was soon to follow.

01:00:42Crossing the border was wild.

01:00:44I can't believe we made it.

01:00:52The first time we had called her, she did not answer.

01:00:56We tried later that night.

01:00:58The next day, I tried again, and that's when we were like, something's up.

01:01:04Something's not right.

01:01:05Bradley and Caitlin Roth grew concerned about Bradley's mom and stepdad, Michelle and Jim Butler.

01:01:12We were worried that something had happened.

01:01:16Michelle had bought our daughter, Izzy, a vest, some cowgirl boots, a belt, to have a whole fit for her riding lessons.

01:01:26She'd never not answer a face call from Izzy.

01:01:31After months of traveling and posting photos online, most recently from Padre Island, Texas, Michelle and Jim's family and friends suddenly couldn't get a hold of them.

01:01:41Barbara Sage was one of the couple's best friends.

01:01:43After October 15th, 2019, she couldn't get in touch with either of them.

01:01:49It was not like them because they were either on social media, they were either texting or calling, and it was just radio silent.

01:01:59Jimbo's last post was taking a picture of his wife sitting on the beautiful beach of Corpus Christi, Texas.

01:02:09He always joked about how he did all the work while Michelle relaxes, but if anyone knew them, they knew that Jimbo wouldn't have it any other way.

01:02:21He loved to work, and he loved Michelle.

01:02:24If I knew that that was going to be the last time I spoke to them, I probably would have told them to be careful.

01:02:31I probably would have said, I love you.

01:02:35I didn't want to believe anything bad happened to them.

01:02:39One scenario that no one wanted to believe was that Jim and Michelle had tragically crossed paths with a madman, Adam Curtis Williams.

01:02:48Now, Williams was on the run in the butler's truck somewhere south of the border.

01:02:52Now, you're just trying to get as far south as you can?

01:02:56Right.

01:02:56I'd been on the run to Mexico before, and I wanted to go down to play at El Carmen because I'd had an apartment there once before, and I knew what I had to do there to survive, and I knew that I was be able to survive there and have a place and make enough money to get to the next spot, which I wanted to go to the Cayman Islands.

01:03:16How were you going to make money?

01:03:17Selling drugs.

01:03:18That's what I did the first time I was there.

01:03:20You had connections there and so forth?

01:03:22No, I just, you know, I speak a little bit of Spanish, and Cozumel is right off of play at El Carmen, so the cruise ships come in right there, and then everybody takes the ferries into play at El Carmen because there's a really famous street called Fifth Avenue, which is amazing, actually.

01:03:38Well, all the tourists want drugs.

01:03:39All the tourists are also afraid to buy drugs from the Mexican people because they feel like they're going to get robbed or whatever.

01:03:46So even though I look the way I do, once I talk to them for a second, hang out with them, they buy me beers, I sell them drugs, and it worked.

01:03:54It worked really well the first time I was there, and that's what I did, and that's what I planned on doing again.

01:03:59But you didn't go to the Yucatan Peninsula.

01:04:01You went to Jalisco.

01:04:03We stopped in Jalisco, and we'd been driving for days without stopping because I wanted to get as far away from the border as possible.

01:04:13So Amanda convinced me to stop and to rest and let us, like, recoup.

01:04:21Then Williams again deploys his wicked charm to set up camp on the property of a local merchant.

01:04:27I ended up vibing with the owner of the place, and he was like, oh, this guy is cool.

01:04:32And he offered to let me park the trailer in, like, this fenced-off area, which I was, like, awesome.

01:04:38So that's why you stopped.

01:04:40Yeah.

01:04:40But that was a mistake.

01:04:42Oh, yeah.

01:04:42Can you feel the heat?

01:04:46No, not at that time.

01:04:48So when we stopped there, it was like nothing had hit the news yet.

01:04:56They hadn't found the bodies yet.

01:04:57So I actually felt safe enough that I even put the gun out.

01:05:02But meanwhile, back in the States, the authorities had uncovered a photo of Adam Williams crossing the border.

01:05:09Turns out that his close call with a beach patrol officer shortly before the murders...

01:05:14Before I get started, are there any weapons in the vehicle?

01:05:17...lead police to identify him as a person of interest in the butler's stolen truck.

01:05:22The first picture that we saw of him was the picture in Jim and my mom's truck crossing the border, and not to judge a book by its cover, but you could probably tell that he was not the nicest dude in the world, just having a head full of tattoos.

01:05:39I think at the point of seeing that picture, I tried to hold out hope, and my husband was just like, we have to be real.

01:05:49Like, there's something that happened, and we have to be open-minded to the worst case scenario.

01:05:57Michelle and Jim's family and friends then mobilized their own investigation, harnessing the power of social media.

01:06:06I created the Facebook page to find them.

01:06:10I believe the Facebook page is one of the reasons that he was captured.

01:06:18And Caitlin and Bradley, they were very involved in getting all that organized.

01:06:24I used Facebook to post online, posted pictures, and I just begged people, please share, please share, and first day it was like 10 shares, and then it ended up turning into 1,000 to 15,000, to being shared on different pages, to people reaching out, and it blew up really quick.

01:06:48Then, a break in the social media hunt.

01:06:51A tip comes in from south of the border.

01:06:54We were sitting on the couch one night, and I get this message request on Facebook, and it was somebody in Mexico messaged me and said, I know where the truck and camper are.

01:07:07The next thing I know, I'm getting tackled off of the chair, because my back was to the trailer door.

01:07:14The next thing I know, there they are.

01:07:16Fugitive Adam Williams was already in Mexico, having left behind a shallow grave on a beach in Padre Island, Texas.

01:07:31Meanwhile, police made a grim discovery.

01:07:35The bodies of James and Michelle Butler.

01:07:39How could anybody be so heinous to do this to two people?

01:07:43You know, probably the most friendliest folks in America.

01:07:46Sheriff Richard Kirkpatrick of Cleburg County, Texas, where the murders took place, took charge of the hunt for Williams, who was holed up 800 miles away in Jalisco, Mexico, on the property of a local merchant.

01:07:59We receive a phone call at our office from a gentleman who owns a trailer park that says, hey, I think this guy is here, and he's staying in our trailer park.

01:08:14And it's the break we've been looking for.

01:08:17Kirkpatrick enlisted the help of the U.S. Marshals, as well as an elite Mexican police unit that tracks down foreign fugitives like Williams.

01:08:25We completely blindsided when the SWAT team showed up?

01:08:31Totally. Totally.

01:08:33Super drunk and high.

01:08:35What time of day?

01:08:36Oh, it was night, late at night, maybe like midnight or something around there.

01:08:41I'm really not sure.

01:08:42I was just drunk the whole time I was there and high.

01:08:46I was literally in there tattooing on Amanda, drinking tequila and smoking weed, dab pins and everything.

01:08:55And the dog wouldn't stop barking, but she wouldn't ever stop barking, so I wasn't really tripped out about that.

01:09:00And the trailer door was open, right?

01:09:03And I just kept sticking my head out there yelling, shut up, you know?

01:09:07And then the next thing I know, I'm getting tackled off of the chair because my back was to the trailer door.

01:09:16The next thing I know, there they are.

01:09:17On November 6, 2019, two weeks after murdering the Butlers, Mexican police tackled Williams to the floor and shackled him for handoff to U.S. Marshals.

01:09:28But even to this elite team of cops, the killer cut an intimidating figure.

01:09:35The sheriff who deployed that team said later that you, he's one of those individuals I believe is capable of absolute terror.

01:09:46Even the men who apprehended you, it sounds like we're scared.

01:09:53Okay.

01:09:54Did you pick up any of that?

01:09:56The U.S. Marshals?

01:09:58Yeah, I could tell they were afraid of me.

01:10:01What state of mind were you then?

01:10:03Were you going to attack?

01:10:07I wanted to really badly.

01:10:09I wanted to.

01:10:10If you had your gun, would you have shot at them?

01:10:13Oh, 100%.

01:10:14If I would have had the opportunity to, I would have, yes.

01:10:17When they first arrested me, there was a dude who had a gun on his leg, right?

01:10:22And it was just rattling around.

01:10:24So the whole time I'm sitting there with the handcuffs on, I'm like, I can get that gun out.

01:10:30Wow.

01:10:30I can get that gun out.

01:10:32Criminally minded to the end.

01:10:33I know how to hit handcuffs in a certain way, if they're not double locked, to where I can open them.

01:10:42I learned it in the feds.

01:10:44So that was my goal, right?

01:10:47Is hopefully he won't double lock them, or I can get them loose enough to where I can get my hand out.

01:10:54Or while he's loosening them, I'll have an opportunity.

01:10:58But you're there in custody, surrounded by elite Mexican police, U.S. Marshals, and you're still plotting.

01:11:08Yep.

01:11:10What does that say about you?

01:11:13You tell me.

01:11:16Criminally minded?

01:11:18Criminally minded, sure, yeah.

01:11:19I think it says that I don't ever give up.

01:11:23I will never quit.

01:11:26I will never give up.

01:11:29I just don't have that in me.

01:11:30I'm not a quitter.

01:11:32If I'm going to see something out, I'm going to see it out to the end.

01:11:36Did it never occur to you that you could take your intelligence and competitive nature and direct it in a different direction?

01:11:47I wish more than anything, David, that I would have done something other than the things I've done in my life.

01:11:54Williams was extradited back to the States.

01:11:56The sheriff was waiting.

01:11:58I'm at the airport in Houston.

01:12:02I'm standing at the gate, and I see Mr. Williams, and I'm just, I'm without words.

01:12:14Williams is a dangerous man.

01:12:15I mean, make no mistake about it.

01:12:17He does not care who he takes down or who he puts in his path.

01:12:22It's utter destruction and death wherever he turns.

01:12:26Adam, clearly there was, in that man's heart, that Adam Williams, right, the hell-bound one, no remorse in his heart or soul.

01:12:36Yeah, I honestly cannot believe the things I've done throughout my life.

01:12:45Good, sir, right here.

01:12:48My name's Edward Rosen with the Texas Rangers.

01:12:50What's your name, sir?

01:12:51Adam.

01:12:52At the time, Williams shut down the police's attempt to interrogate him.

01:12:56I'm not going to say anything without a lawyer.

01:12:59I need to talk to a lawyer.

01:13:02While his former wife, Amanda Nover, desperately tried to save herself at his expense.

01:13:07It was that night that Adam got the new truck and trailer.

01:13:16There would be no trial.

01:13:18Both suspects would plead guilty to murder.

01:13:21Amanda Nover took a deal in exchange for a 20-year sentence.

01:13:25Williams got life.

01:13:27Nover and Williams, the one-time lovebirds on the run from the law, eventually divorced.

01:13:33But soon enough, Williams once again found love.

01:13:36The self-described monster was about to get a new girlfriend and a new religion.

01:13:42Finding God and forgiveness and grace was something that I needed.

01:13:50Or I would have ended up killing myself in here.

01:13:54I don't know what's in your heart, Adam.

01:13:57Only you and your God know what's in your heart.

01:14:00But your record leaves me skeptical.

01:14:03Skeptical, skeptical even that this religious awakening is genuine.

01:14:09You understand why I would be skeptical?

01:14:11Oh, I understand you.

01:14:14Are you really a saved Christian?

01:14:17Or is this some kind of stunt?

01:14:23What would be the purpose of it?

01:14:26Make yourself look less evil?

01:14:28Attract attention through your writings and this interview?

01:14:32I don't know.

01:14:33I'm just asking because you have a lot of sins to live down.

01:14:38And a long record of manipulation.

01:14:41And so I'm asking you, are you really a changed man?

01:14:47Today, serving life in prison, Adam Williams has connected with an old friend and a new love.

01:14:59Ashley Green.

01:15:01She's been writing his story in a substack journal called Hellbound.

01:15:05The title plays on Williams' recent conversion to Christianity and his claims of spiritual redemption.

01:15:11You know, a lot of felons find Jesus in jail.

01:15:15Yeah, and you know, I've always actually looked down on him, right?

01:15:18And for real, too.

01:15:20Just like, look at them, you know, fake ass, right?

01:15:25That is really how I looked at him.

01:15:27Is it because you doubt the sincerity of their faith?

01:15:33Or you just don't respect a man who won't engage in violence?

01:15:41Both.

01:15:42I have nothing to gain from saying I'm a Christian now.

01:15:47I'm not trying to go back on appeal.

01:15:49They will never let me out of here.

01:15:51Finding God and forgiveness and grace was something that I needed.

01:15:59Or I would have ended up killing myself in here.

01:16:03It's just like something, like, passed over me.

01:16:06And it's called the Holy Spirit.

01:16:07I felt it.

01:16:09The hair stood up on me, on my arms, and I felt the Holy Spirit.

01:16:14And that's how I know God is real.

01:16:17And that's why I know that change is possible.

01:16:19It's because I feel it.

01:16:22I feel the Holy Spirit.

01:16:24I don't care what anyone thinks about me.

01:16:27And yet, William's story, as told in Hellbound,

01:16:30completely omits the worst of his sins,

01:16:33including the brutal murder of the butlers

01:16:35and his pattern of violence against women.

01:16:38It's a major contradiction in his public atonement.

01:16:42In Hellbound, you only address the hell brought onto you

01:16:47and that you had to endure it,

01:16:49not the hell you created for people like the butlers

01:16:52or these women you assaulted.

01:16:54Do you think that accepting Jesus as your Savior

01:16:57wipes the slate clean?

01:17:00Absolutely not.

01:17:02There is no wiping the slate clean

01:17:04when you've committed the kinds of horrific things

01:17:08that I've done in my life.

01:17:09I am forever going to be in that,

01:17:14known for that.

01:17:16It will always eat away at the end at me.

01:17:20I don't know how much of Hellbound is your writing

01:17:26versus Ashley's writing and editing.

01:17:29I assume you have a lot of influence over it.

01:17:32She says in the booking correspondence

01:17:35that you did not address these crimes in the book

01:17:40out of consideration for the victims.

01:17:42None of this is in Hellbound.

01:17:47Why not?

01:17:51I wanted to do something for the victims' families.

01:17:55So this is going to be something totally separate.

01:17:58But if you're writing this story, right,

01:18:04you're writing this story to, I mean, in your words,

01:18:09you know, share it with the world

01:18:10in the hopes that somebody reads it

01:18:14and is helped by it.

01:18:17Why avoid your most depraved crimes?

01:18:22I'm not avoiding it.

01:18:23Well, in Hellbound, you did.

01:18:26I'm talking about in Hellbound.

01:18:27None of this is told in Hellbound.

01:18:30I wanted to write it

01:18:31and have it be its own thing.

01:18:38And I wanted to donate all the proceeds

01:18:40to the victims' families.

01:18:45Because these omissions,

01:18:48it starts to look like

01:18:50you are avoiding your most depraved crimes.

01:18:55And this is supposed to be a book

01:18:58where you're coming clean, right?

01:19:00Right.

01:19:01But it reads, right,

01:19:03almost like a whitewashing

01:19:05without addressing these crimes.

01:19:08Okay.

01:19:09Do you see what I mean?

01:19:10Yeah.

01:19:10It's like the opposite of coming clean.

01:19:13You know, you don't talk about the worst of it.

01:19:15And I don't think the victims' family

01:19:19want to see, you know,

01:19:21your woe is me book

01:19:22about your sad childhood

01:19:24without an honest accounting

01:19:26of what you did to their loved ones.

01:19:28Okay.

01:19:28Do you?

01:19:29I see where you're coming from.

01:19:33Adam Williams may believe

01:19:34he's seeking redemption

01:19:35in the eyes of God,

01:19:37but what about the families

01:19:38of the people whose lives

01:19:40he so brutally cut short?

01:19:42We showed a portion of our interview

01:19:43to James and Michelle Butler's family.

01:19:48What about the Butlers, Adam?

01:19:52James Butler, Navy veteran, right?

01:19:55Yeah.

01:19:55Good man by all accounts

01:19:57served this country honorably.

01:20:00Family man living out

01:20:02a well-earned retirement.

01:20:05I robbed him.

01:20:07I robbed him of his life.

01:20:09I robbed his children of a life with him.

01:20:12And that's what really gets me, right?

01:20:15Is the selfishness of my act.

01:20:22I didn't just rob him of his trailer

01:20:25in his life.

01:20:27I robbed his family of a life with him.

01:20:30And that's the f*** that gets to me.

01:20:33When I say in the beginning,

01:20:36the guilt is just all too consuming, right?

01:20:42I'm not...

01:20:43It's not that I'm laying in here in my cell

01:20:46feeling sorry for myself.

01:20:49It's the thought of what I took from them.

01:21:01And really, and it's not even so much

01:21:03James and Michelle because they're dead.

01:21:06It's their kids and their grandchildren.

01:21:08I robbed them, all of them people,

01:21:12of a life with them.

01:21:15So I can only...

01:21:16I can't even fathom

01:21:17what it's like for them.

01:21:20And I did that.

01:21:22Michelle Butler, a mom, hard worker,

01:21:25told me your epiphany

01:21:27happened when

01:21:30you envisioned them

01:21:33in your cell

01:21:35forgiving you.

01:21:37Were you sober at that point?

01:21:38Oh, no, no.

01:21:39I had been awake for six days, I think.

01:21:43You're not asking for forgiveness

01:21:45from the Butler family?

01:21:48I don't deserve their forgiveness.

01:21:51I'm trying...

01:21:52I want to try and give them

01:21:55some sort of closure.

01:21:56I can't ask them for anything.

01:21:59I don't deserve anything.

01:22:03How selfish of that would be of me

01:22:05to ask them for forgiveness.

01:22:09I can't ask them for that.

01:22:11I would like to tell them

01:22:13I'm sorry.

01:22:18That's the way I looked over at the camera.

01:22:21I am sincerely sorry that I robbed you

01:22:24of a life

01:22:25with your mom,

01:22:28with your dad.

01:22:32I did that.

01:22:34And I'm so sorry.

01:22:37I don't deserve your forgiveness

01:22:39and I'm not asking for it.

01:22:41I apologize

01:22:42for my actions.

01:22:48I know

01:22:48my mom and Jim

01:22:50wouldn't forgive them.

01:22:51I mean,

01:22:53the type of family

01:22:54I come from,

01:22:55we're very blunt.

01:22:57Eye for an eye.

01:22:59I mean,

01:22:59if court and

01:23:00laws weren't a thing,

01:23:04he himself

01:23:04wouldn't be alive.

01:23:06He didn't try hard enough

01:23:07to kill himself,

01:23:08clearly,

01:23:08because he's still alive.

01:23:10I think he's just sorry

01:23:12he got caught,

01:23:13not that

01:23:13he did anything.

01:23:15I mean,

01:23:15he's a career criminal

01:23:16that finally

01:23:18has no chance

01:23:19to getting out of jail,

01:23:20so he's just

01:23:21coming to terms

01:23:22with it.

01:23:23They all find God

01:23:24when they're sitting

01:23:24in a prison cell

01:23:2520 hours out of a day.

01:23:29Do you also know

01:23:30that both the

01:23:31New and Old Testaments

01:23:32say that the punishment

01:23:34for murder is death?

01:23:35Not all Christians

01:23:36believe in capital punishment,

01:23:38but do you think

01:23:39you deserve to die

01:23:40for murdering

01:23:41those innocent people?

01:23:43Yeah,

01:23:44I do.

01:23:46By the laws of man

01:23:47or God?

01:23:48We don't get to choose

01:23:49what God chooses

01:23:50for us

01:23:52on our day

01:23:52that we stand

01:23:54in front of him.

01:23:55He gets to choose that.

01:23:57By the laws of man,

01:23:58yes,

01:24:00I deserved,

01:24:01I deserved to be dead.

01:24:04That's the most greatest

01:24:05thing about

01:24:06faith,

01:24:08though,

01:24:09and,

01:24:09and the Bible.

01:24:12It's all about forgiveness.

01:24:14And grace.

01:24:18And,

01:24:18and,

01:24:19I think that's awesome.

01:24:21And you know why

01:24:22I think it's awesome?

01:24:23Why?

01:24:24Because I've committed

01:24:25so many horrific acts

01:24:27over and over and over

01:24:29throughout my life

01:24:30that I have to believe

01:24:33in something.

01:24:35I need it.

01:24:36You need it?

01:24:37I need it.

01:24:38Yeah.

01:24:39Or I,

01:24:39or,

01:24:40or,

01:24:41or I'd still be doing

01:24:42stuff like that.

01:24:44I tried to kill myself

01:24:47because I felt like

01:24:48I don't deserve

01:24:49to live anymore

01:24:51because of all these things

01:24:52I've done throughout my life.

01:24:54Do you think

01:24:55you deserve forgiveness?

01:24:56No,

01:24:57I don't.

01:24:59But that's not for me

01:25:01to decide.

01:25:02That's for Heavenly Father

01:25:03to decide.

01:25:04Are you still the man

01:25:05that did those terrible things?

01:25:07I am that man.

01:25:08Is it still in you?

01:25:10It will always be in me.

01:25:12Still capable of those things?

01:25:13Of course I am.

01:25:15But I don't choose

01:25:17to do those things anymore.

01:25:20I'm trying to choose

01:25:22to not to do those things.

01:25:23I wanted to feel

01:25:31what

01:25:31Michelle was feeling

01:25:33in her last moments.

01:25:38And

01:25:39she said

01:25:41that she was sitting

01:25:43by the ocean

01:25:44without her phone

01:25:47and

01:25:48she was listening

01:25:49to the waves crash.

01:25:52And I wanted

01:25:53to feel that.

01:25:54I wanted to know

01:25:54what she had

01:25:55gone through.

01:25:57I wanted to know

01:25:58what she

01:25:58what she felt

01:26:00that day.

01:26:03He took my best friends

01:26:05away from me.

01:26:07He took

01:26:07he took my future

01:26:11away from me.

01:26:12He took my best

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