‘It had to be done,’ accused O.C. serial killer said on 2012 video
In a newly released video, a former Marine talks without hesitation about his so-called “serial thrill-kill spree” that left six people dead in Orange County, including four homeless men, KTLA-TV is reporting.
The video was recorded in the pre-dawn hours on Jan. 14, 2012, just hours after Itzcoatl “Izzy” Ocampo was arrested following the stabbing death of a homeless man in Anaheim.
The next year Ocampo was found shaking and vomiting in his cell at the Orange County jail and died later at a local hospital. His attorney said he died after swallowing a household cleanser.
A transcript of the police interrogation of Ocampo was contained in a grand jury report that was made public in 2012 and offered a rare glimpse into the mind of a 23-year-old man who said he joined the Marines to learn how to kill and hoped to someday become one of America’s most prolific killers.
Ocampo told investigators that he considered homeless people a “blight” and that he was performing a community service by killing them, the grand jury transcript noted.
His final victim, authorities said, was selected because his image and name had appeared in a Los Angeles Times story about the then-ongoing string of fatal attacks on homeless men.
In the video obtained by KTLA, Ocampo responded to questions from Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt.
“You know what’s right and you know what’s wrong?” Wyatt said.
“Yes, sir,” Ocampo said.
“Do you think that what you’ve done is right or wrong?” Wyatt said.
“Wrong, but it had to be done,” Ocampo said.
During the interview, Ocampo said he had what he called “the kill gene.”
“I didn’t get to kill when I was in … I’d look at other Marines and, you know, want to be like them,” he said.
Ocampo began his fatal attacks on Oct. 25, 2011, allegedly stabbing 53-year-old Raquel Estrada and her son, 34-year-old Juan Herrera, in their Yorba Linda home. Over the next three months, Ocampo allegedly killed four homeless men: 53-year-old James McGillivray, 42-year-old Lloyd Middaugh, 57-year-old Paulus Smit and 64-year-old John Berry.
Police said that after one of the fatal attacks Ocampo stopped by a convenience store and casually ate a bag of beef jerky before walking to the home he shared with his mother and younger siblings.
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