Heart of Glass
Part One
PART
ONE
All we are is the result of what we have thought.
—BUDDHA
Criminal Confessions, Season 7: The Carnival Killer
EPISODE 1—UNEDITED INTERVIEW WITH SAMUEL FIGG
Location: Washington State Men’s Penitentiary, Walla Walla, WA
JANA JONES [PRODUCER, OFF CAMERA]: Let’s start with a self-introduction. Could you please look straight into the camera and tell us who you are?
SAMUEL FIGG: You want just my name? Or what I’m in for?
JONES: How about both? Would you like to practice it first?
FIGG: Nope, I got it. [looks into camera and smiles] I’m Samuel Figg—
JONES: Maybe don’t smile. It looks . . . weird. Like you’re not taking this seriously.
FIGG: I’m not taking it seriously. I’ve agreed to be in some documentary I won’t even get to watch in here, which won’t change a damn thing anyway.
JONES: Just try it again with a neutral expression?
FIGG: [looks into camera] My name is Samuel Figg. I’m fifty-four years old, and I was born in a small town in Arkansas I guarantee you never heard of.
JONES: Keep going.
FIGG: I’m serving five consecutive life sentences for first-degree murder here in the Washington State Penitentiary, where I’ve been incarcerated for the past twenty-five years. I’m a long way from home. [lifts arms and rattles the chains handcuffing him to the table]
JONES: Are you guilty?
FIGG: Fuck yeah, I’m guilty.
JONES: Why did you agree to be in this documentary?
FIGG: Because you’re so pretty and you asked so nice. [laughs]
JONES: [sighs] Try it again.
FIGG: I agreed to talk to you because I’ve been in here for almost half my life and I’m going to die in here. And so I got nothing to lose by telling the truth.
JONES: And what is the truth?
FIGG: That I murdered four women in the summer of 2001.
JONES: [pause, sound of papers shuffling] You mean five women.
FIGG: I said four.
JONES: You pled guilty to five murders, Mr. Figg. You’re serving five life sentences.
FIGG: I know what I’m serving, pretty lady. But you said you wanted the truth. I killed four women, not five. That’s the truth.