Part Three
PART
THREE
There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.
—DANTE ALIGHIERI
Criminal Confessions, Season 7: The Carnival Killer
EPISODE 3—UNEDITED INTERVIEW WITH SAMUEL FIGG
Location: Washington State Men’s Penitentiary, Walla Walla, WA
JANA JONES [PRODUCER, OFF CAMERA]: Tell me about Lorelei.
SAMUEL FIGG: You have a picture of her? It might jog my memory.
JONES: You don’t remember her, but you confessed to her murder?
FIGG: I’m a visual person. You want details, a photo wouldn’t hurt.
JONES: [shows him a photo] This is Lorelei Glass.
FIGG: [takes the photo] Christ almighty, she was young. Such a bossy little thing. But I’m not really into blondes. I’m into brunettes, like you.
JONES: Tell me about that day you met.
FIGG: She was with her friends. They were standing near that big Ferris wheel at Wonderland, watching me, practically begging me to come over and talk to them.
JONES: Were they begging you, though? Lorelei was only fifteen. They were barely teenagers, and you were twenty-nine at the time.
FIGG: I’m guessing you’re from the city. I’m gonna take a shot and say New York?
JONES: Toronto.
FIGG: Close enough. You’re a big-city girl. Let me tell you, there’s a world of difference between city girls and small-town girls. And Lorelei and her friends, they were small-town girls.
JONES: Explain it to me.
FIGG: City girls, they’re independent. They don’t need you.
They got goals, and they’re going places.
Small-town girls, on the other hand, got dreams. Dreams aren’t the same as goals.
And all townies got the same dream. They want out.
They see someone like me, someone not from their town, and they latch on, hoping to hitch a ride to somewhere more interesting.
Lorelei and her friends, they were townies.
Of course they wanted me to come over and talk to them.
JONES: And then what happened?
FIGG: We all went to the movies. One of those old-fashioned drive-ins, out in the middle of nowhere, farmland all around.
One of her friends asked me a million questions.
The other one was a judgy little thing, looked at me like I was the gum she’d just picked off her shoe.
But they still took my money. For the tickets.
For the food. Even at that age, they knew how to get what they wanted from men.
JONES: What made you choose Lorelei, specifically?
FIGG: I didn’t choose her. That’s the thing you people don’t understand. She chose me. Going to the drive-in, that was her idea. She was running the show. We all just went along with it. Whatever happened to her that night, I didn’t do it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she brought it on herself.
JONES: You’re blaming the victim?
FIGG: [sighs] She wasn’t my victim. But invite a stranger in, and strange things will happen.