Terrible, Horrible, No Good Diane Downs| True Crime — Transcript

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1. 0:00hey guys so today i'm going to tell you
2. 0:02guys about diane downs
3. 0:03now uh if you know the name you know the
4. 0:05story but if not i'm going to tell you
5. 0:06about it
6. 0:07he has often been compared to ted bundy
7. 0:11susan smith casey anthony just a bunch
8. 0:14of terrible people
9. 0:15right um so the story is crazy and uh it
10. 0:18was
11. 0:19all over the news whenever it happened
12. 0:21um
13. 0:22and i wasn't alive then and i'm pretty
14. 0:24sure a lot of you weren't so um
15. 0:25i'm gonna tell you about it but before i
16. 0:27start i do just want to say i mean no
17. 0:28disrespect to any of the victims that i
18. 0:30talk about in the video
19. 0:32i'm just really really interested in
20. 0:33true crime and i thought this was an
21. 0:34interesting story
22. 0:36elizabeth diane downs was born on august
23. 0:387
24. 0:391955 in phoenix arizona and she was the
25. 0:42oldest of four children
26. 0:44parents were apparently very
27. 0:45conservative and strict and
28. 0:47at age 14 she
29. 0:50cut her hair and dyed it blonde and
30. 0:51started going by her middle name
31. 0:54diane and started wearing a lot of
32. 0:56provocative clothing and she started
33. 0:58dating the 16 year old boy across the
34. 1:00street named stephen
35. 1:01the parents obviously didn't approve of
36. 1:03their relationship but um
37. 1:05she didn't care and after she graduated
38. 1:07from moon valley high
39. 1:09steven joined the navy so she moved with
40. 1:12him
41. 1:13i don't exactly know where they moved
42. 1:15but she moved with him and she enrolled
43. 1:16in a baptist college
44. 1:19and they promised to stay faithful to
45. 1:20each other but
46. 1:22diane really couldn't hold up her end of
47. 1:24the bargain
48. 1:25because she was expelled for promiscuous
49. 1:27behavior
50. 1:28and she returned back to arizona to live
51. 1:30with her mother but she
52. 1:32only to move back again to mary stephen
53. 1:36in november of
54. 1:371973. they allegedly had a lot of
55. 1:39arguments about
56. 1:40money and infidelity because um
57. 1:43diane couldn't keep her hands to herself
58. 1:45which we'll learn more about that
59. 1:47later despite their rough marriage
60. 1:49though they had their first child
61. 1:51christy in 1974 and six months after
62. 1:53christy was born
63. 1:54she joined the navy also but she only
64. 1:57stayed for three weeks
65. 1:58because steven was allegedly
66. 2:01neglecting christie i don't know i never
67. 2:04got much information on that
68. 2:06anything that i read or watched never
69. 2:08really said anything about it like
70. 2:10what in the neglect was and then in 1975
71. 2:13they had their second child cheryl
72. 2:15and um two kids was enough for stephen
73. 2:18he was two and three so he got a
74. 2:19vasectomy
75. 2:20but um that didn't stop diane from
76. 2:22getting pregnant again
77. 2:24but she didn't have this child and in
78. 2:261978
79. 2:27they both moved to mesa arizona where
80. 2:29they both found
81. 2:30jobs at manufacturing companies and
82. 2:34there diane began having a bunch of
83. 2:35affairs with co-workers
84. 2:37and um became pregnant again but she had
85. 2:40this baby
86. 2:40and named him danny and um stephen was
87. 2:44um
88. 2:45i think he in my opinion he was a good
89. 2:47guy because he accepted
90. 2:48danny as his own even though diane was
91. 2:51horrible
92. 2:52okay and danny was born in december of
93. 2:541979
94. 2:55and after that the marriage lasted only
95. 2:57one more year and they got divorced in
96. 2:591980
97. 3:00and in the following years diane was
98. 3:02pretty much crashing with people
99. 3:04and sleeping with men and still trying
100. 3:05to get stephen back
101. 3:07i don't really know why to support
102. 3:09herself she decided that she would
103. 3:10become a surrogate mother because she
104. 3:12was
105. 3:13so good at getting pregnant but she
106. 3:15failed two psychiatric
107. 3:17exams that were required for her to
108. 3:19qualify
109. 3:20and one of the tests showed that she was
110. 3:21very intelligent but also
111. 3:23psychotic and she would brag about that
112. 3:26to her friends
113. 3:28in 1981 she was finally accepted into
114. 3:30the program
115. 3:31um and was given ten thousand dollars
116. 3:34for carrying a baby to full term
117. 3:35after that because she was so good at
118. 3:38getting pregnant
119. 3:39she tried to open up her own surrogate
120. 3:42clinic
121. 3:42because she's crazy it was during this
122. 3:45time that she
123. 3:46got a full-time job as a postal carrier
124. 3:48and there she met a man named
125. 3:50robert knickerbocker and this man was
126. 3:53apparently the man of her dreams she
127. 3:55would do anything for this guy
128. 3:58literally so nick was going through a
129. 4:00separation and
130. 4:02diane was very possessive of him
131. 4:05and basically was just like i really
132. 4:08want you all to myself and i would do
133. 4:10anything
134. 4:11to be with you just being all nasty like
135. 4:14she is i don't know i look at her and
136. 4:15i'm just like
137. 4:16girl i don't get it and like in the
138. 4:19newspapers and like
139. 4:20anything that you watch people are like
140. 4:22oh my god she wasn't such an attractive
141. 4:23woman i'm like
142. 4:24where i don't see it
143. 4:28maybe because i know she's crazy nick
144. 4:30said quote i felt suffocated by her
145. 4:31demands and broke it off
146. 4:33diane was so devastated she moved to
147. 4:35oregon but she believed that she could
148. 4:37win nick back
149. 4:37and at 27 she wrote letters to him
150. 4:40before visiting him again
151. 4:42in april of 1983. he completely rejected
152. 4:45her and said
153. 4:46look diane i like you okay like
154. 4:49you're cool kind of but you have kids
155. 4:53and i'm not interested in having
156. 4:55children so he didn't want kids
157. 4:58okay and she was like dead set she's
158. 5:00like that's why he doesn't want to be
159. 5:01with me
160. 5:02because i have kids i have three kids
161. 5:04and
162. 5:05you know i have to take care of them all
163. 5:06by myself
164. 5:08so what does she do diane stayed in
165. 5:10oregon and got another
166. 5:12uh job at the postal service where she
167. 5:14was assigned to
168. 5:16a route mail routes in the city of
169. 5:18cottage grove oregon which was just
170. 5:20a typical small town on may 19 1983
171. 5:24diane and her kids were at a friend's
172. 5:27house this is this is her story okay
173. 5:29this is how she tells it
174. 5:31so they were at a they were at a
175. 5:32friend's house and it got late it was
176. 5:33like
177. 5:3410 o'clock so they started leaving and
178. 5:36diane apparently
179. 5:38loved to take road trips okay like she
180. 5:40they took road trips all the time and
181. 5:41they took back room she
182. 5:42saw a road that she had never been on
183. 5:44before so she decided to take this road
184. 5:47at night with her children in the back
185. 5:49like this this is her story okay this is
186. 5:51what she says that she did
187. 5:53so she's driving down this road late at
188. 5:56night and some
189. 5:57random dude just flags her down and
190. 5:59she's like okay let me pull over
191. 6:01as a mother i'm not a mother but like as
192. 6:03if i was a mother
193. 6:05i would be like you're funny like you
194. 6:08think i'm gonna stop for you
195. 6:09i'm not gonna stop for you what that's
196. 6:12stupid but she stops
197. 6:15and this man is like i want your car and
198. 6:17she says
199. 6:18are you kidding me and so he apparently
200. 6:22just sticks his hand
201. 6:23with a gun in his hand just sticks it in
202. 6:25the car and shoots all the kids
203. 6:28okay he shoots all the children in the
204. 6:31back
205. 6:32and she like like fake throws the keys
206. 6:36like you fake out a dog if you like
207. 6:37throw a ball you know she like faked
208. 6:40through the keys
209. 6:41and got in the car and rushed to the
210. 6:43hospital that's her story
211. 6:46but she arrived at the hospital
212. 6:50with a bloody soaked back seat of her
213. 6:53car
214. 6:54um with her children like dying
215. 6:57in the back seat she has a little towel
216. 6:59wrapped around her arm
217. 7:01and she's like oh my god my children
218. 7:03have been shot help me
219. 7:05the doctors and the police that show up
220. 7:07quickly decide that
221. 7:09yeah she's she's not acting normal some
222. 7:11something's wrong
223. 7:12here so they start interviewing her and
224. 7:14she doesn't really seem
225. 7:16concerned about her children's like
226. 7:19medical condition she's kind of just
227. 7:22like oh wait i need to call nick
228. 7:23where's where's the phone can i call
229. 7:25nick
230. 7:27like i'm saying nick is like robert but
231. 7:29like
232. 7:31why would you care about calling nick
233. 7:33why wouldn't you like want to call
234. 7:35the father of your children be like hey
235. 7:37guess what just happened you should
236. 7:38probably get down here
237. 7:39she was just like no i need to call nick
238. 7:41she told detectives about the
239. 7:43bushy-haired man right
240. 7:44but she also told them uh that hungry
241. 7:47like the wolf
242. 7:48by duran duran was playing in the car
243. 7:50while this all happened
244. 7:53and uh that's a really weird detail to
245. 7:55tell the cops
246. 7:56when your children were just shot
247. 7:59like why would you care about what song
248. 8:01was playing
249. 8:03you know what i mean i jesus so yeah
250. 8:06they were just like okay
251. 8:07yeah she's weird what what what's going
252. 8:09on and for some reason she also voiced
253. 8:11concern to the doctor that a bullet had
254. 8:14hit
255. 8:14danny's spine and not his heart
256. 8:18i don't know why you would even like if
257. 8:21you didn't want to sound guilty why
258. 8:22would you say anything like that as a
259. 8:24mother why would you say something like
260. 8:25that to a doctor
261. 8:28it's just obvious that she had something
262. 8:29to do with it right so
263. 8:31cheryl had sadly passed away on arrival
264. 8:34and
265. 8:34danny was paralyzed and christy
266. 8:37had suffered a stroke and had lost her
267. 8:40ability to speak which
268. 8:41is such a crazy part in this whole
269. 8:45entire thing
270. 8:46um it's really our run diane also seemed
271. 8:49very very calm
272. 8:50whenever they were questioning her you
273. 8:52know like i think any normal person
274. 8:53would freak out about their children
275. 8:55being almost killed even more shocking
276. 8:58to the doctors
277. 8:59was whenever she was told about
278. 9:01christie's condition she was like
279. 9:03yeah i want to pull a plug and the
280. 9:06doctor was like um
281. 9:08no i can save her so he put in an order
282. 9:12to make
283. 9:12him her guardian while she was being
284. 9:15cared for which
285. 9:16i think is amazing that he did that so
286. 9:18police began their investigation
287. 9:20and they quickly found that yeah her
288. 9:22story was just bullcrap
289. 9:24they never found a gun on land and they
290. 9:26did a dive search but they never found
291. 9:28the gun there but they did find bullet
292. 9:30casings on the ground and investigators
293. 9:32found out that diane had bought
294. 9:34a 22-caliber gun in the past
295. 9:37and that was the casings that were
296. 9:40found on the ground from a 22 caliber
297. 9:43should have mentioned that
298. 9:44but um the police asked you know
299. 9:48stephen and nick and they were like hey
300. 9:50has she ever had a gun
301. 9:52and they were like yeah yeah she's she's
302. 9:55bought a gun before i've seen her with
303. 9:56one but i don't know where it is
304. 9:58and then they asked her and she was like
305. 9:59what no
306. 10:01what are you talking about gun what's
307. 10:04that
308. 10:04and then this composite sketch came out
309. 10:08this composite sketch i don't know i
310. 10:11couldn't really find like a great
311. 10:13picture of it
312. 10:13um here it is though
313. 10:16in my opinion it really does look like
314. 10:18her she just describes some random
315. 10:20ass person but you can clearly tell that
316. 10:23she didn't really
317. 10:24like know what she was describing like
318. 10:27if this couldn't get any
319. 10:29like weirder this reenactment comes out
320. 10:33like i i can put that in the description
321. 10:35to just in saying
322. 10:36and there's a moment in that clip where
323. 10:39she like hits her
324. 10:40cast uh on the on the card door
325. 10:43and she's like i'm a casting that hurts
326. 10:46more and i
327. 10:47and people think she was gonna say oh
328. 10:49that hurt more when i shot myself
329. 10:51but like after like that uh reenactment
330. 10:54was
331. 10:54shown on tv and everybody got to see it
332. 10:58and uh yeah that's when she became the
333. 11:01prime suspect
334. 11:02after the clip she begins her plethora
335. 11:04of interviews
336. 11:06there's so many interviews and the more
337. 11:07she talks the more she incriminates
338. 11:10herself
339. 11:10i've heard people say that she was like
340. 11:12her own worst enemy it is so true
341. 11:14she talks way too much and like when she
342. 11:17talks
343. 11:18she like makes these slight facial
344. 11:20expressions that she probably doesn't
345. 11:21even know that she makes
346. 11:22at this time during the investigation um
347. 11:25witnesses came forward and were like oh
348. 11:26yeah we were driving behind
349. 11:28diane the night that she was rushing to
350. 11:31the hospital
351. 11:32she wasn't rushing she was going like
352. 11:34stupid slow she was going like
353. 11:36five miles an hour there was a doctor
354. 11:38that christy had that was
355. 11:39working with her you know like mental
356. 11:42physical therapy
357. 11:43stuff like that i think she was more
358. 11:45mental therapy though
359. 11:46and she was working with her to you know
360. 11:49get her to say
361. 11:50what happened that night and she was
362. 11:53eventually able to say
363. 11:55her mother did it after christy was
364. 11:57finally able to say
365. 11:59who had done this to her investigators
366. 12:02found
367. 12:02a break in the case they discovered her
368. 12:05secret diary
369. 12:06that spoke of the man of her dreams that
370. 12:08didn't want children
371. 12:10and if only she could get rid of her
372. 12:12children and then he would be with her
373. 12:14like some really messed up disney origin
374. 12:17story
375. 12:17diane downs was arrested and charged
376. 12:19with one count of murder and two counts
377. 12:21of attempted murder and criminal assault
378. 12:24and when her trial began she had a
379. 12:26surprise for
380. 12:27everybody in the courtroom she was eight
381. 12:30months pregnant
382. 12:33i'm pretty sure that she got pregnant um
383. 12:36just to garner sympathy from the jurors
384. 12:40and like put
385. 12:41reasonable down to their head like oh my
386. 12:42gosh she's a mother she would never kill
387. 12:44her kids what y'all talking about y'all
388. 12:46crazy
389. 12:47what and um i think it was like a 2020
390. 12:50episode that explains
391. 12:52who got her pregnant and like how she
392. 12:54made this like tricked this guy into
393. 12:56getting her pregnant
394. 12:57prosecutors pretty much argued the
395. 12:59obvious they argued that
396. 13:00diane attempted to kill her children
397. 13:03because she wanted nick back which was
398. 13:05probably what all of us think right and
399. 13:08what was most likely true
400. 13:09and nick did testify and he said that
401. 13:12diane would
402. 13:13stalk him she would like hide behind
403. 13:16like
404. 13:16bushes all day creepy behind his house
405. 13:20uh or like in front of his house and she
406. 13:23even
407. 13:23offered to kill his wife
408. 13:27so she could be with him forever and he
409. 13:29was like okay yeah did you crazy
410. 13:30they also played the duran duran song in
411. 13:32the courtroom and she was
412. 13:34tapping her foot my dude electric chair
413. 13:38like no
414. 13:39no and then christy testified and she
415. 13:42was able to tell
416. 13:43everybody what happened to her and it is
417. 13:45truly
418. 13:46like so scary describes how diane was
419. 13:49driving down this unknown road that
420. 13:51they've never been on
421. 13:52and she just stops the car gets out and
422. 13:55goes around to the back
423. 13:56grabs something comes around and shoots
424. 13:58them all shoots herself
425. 14:00and then drives super slow to the
426. 14:03hospital
427. 14:04the trial took six weeks on june 17th
428. 14:071984
429. 14:08the jury found her guilty on all charges
430. 14:10she received
431. 14:11life in prison plus 50 years and
432. 14:14apparently when the verdict was read she
433. 14:15just like
434. 14:16i don't know what is there to say
435. 14:21there's a lot she could have said but um
436. 14:24she won't
437. 14:25you know because she's she has no i
438. 14:28don't think she has any empathy that's
439. 14:29just you know
440. 14:30me that's just my opinion i don't know i
441. 14:32think it's pretty it should be obvious
442. 14:34to anybody that she has no empathy and
443. 14:36she does
444. 14:37she did not care about what she did a
445. 14:38month after her trial she gave birth to
446. 14:40her fourth child
447. 14:41and um the state of oregon claimed the
448. 14:45child
449. 14:46after 10 days they were like yeah you're
450. 14:48not keeping that kid
451. 14:49you're crazy by the way i'm sorry if i
452. 14:52laugh a lot
453. 14:53and if that makes anybody uncomfortable
454. 14:55i just do that because i get nervous
455. 14:57but i've been interested in true crime
456. 14:59for a while now or all of the
457. 15:00cases that i read about are just so
458. 15:05like i can't even use like words to
459. 15:07describe it guys like it's
460. 15:09they're all they're all crazy crime is
461. 15:11insane people are crazy
462. 15:12diane was not done because she escaped
463. 15:16y'all july 11th 1987 she scaled a
464. 15:1916 foot tall fence with barbed wire on
465. 15:22top
466. 15:23hauled her her ass over it and then just
467. 15:26like booked it
468. 15:27and then she was gone beach like she
469. 15:29just bye
470. 15:31so police were obviously like oh my god
471. 15:34how did she get out what's going on we
472. 15:36gotta find her so they went to her cell
473. 15:38and they found like a clipboard
474. 15:40with a piece of paper that had like
475. 15:42markings on it
476. 15:43so they did the little chalk trick where
477. 15:45um you put like a piece of paper over it
478. 15:47and then you like put chalk on it
479. 15:49like that and they figured out that it
480. 15:52was just like a straight up map
481. 15:54just like an easy map with like an x and
482. 15:57an address
483. 15:58so they went to that address and they
484. 16:00found her 10 days later on july
485. 16:0221st at some random guy's house i don't
486. 16:05know what she was doing there if she
487. 16:07even knew him
488. 16:08it was only a few blocks away from the
489. 16:10prison that she was at
490. 16:11so i guess she didn't like care about
491. 16:14really running she
492. 16:15probably just wanted to have sex and
493. 16:17then just be like okay yeah
494. 16:18sure i'll go back and she uh she
495. 16:21received five more years for the escape
496. 16:23but um yeah um that's the story of diane
497. 16:27freaking downs um one of the worst
498. 16:30people out there
499. 16:31her fourth daughter did grow up and like
500. 16:34eventually found out who she was
501. 16:36and like uh wrote to her and i don't
502. 16:38know diane was acting really crazy
503. 16:40saying crazy stuff like i'm in a
504. 16:41conspiracy and the government
505. 16:43is like saying i'm guilty i didn't
506. 16:45really do this blah blah blah
507. 16:47diane was eligible for parole in 2008
508. 16:50as a dangerous offender under oregon law
509. 16:52she can have a parole hearing every two
510. 16:54years
511. 16:56and she hasn't gotten out yet and she
512. 16:58looks like carella deville she looks
513. 16:59really scary
514. 17:01um and i i don't think she'll ever get
515. 17:04out
516. 17:05i really don't and um that's perfectly
517. 17:08fine with me because i feel a lot safer
518. 17:10with her in prison
519. 17:11i hope you guys enjoyed the video i know
520. 17:14it was um
521. 17:15it's a rough case you know people are
522. 17:18dying
523. 17:18i know it sucks but um it's important to
524. 17:21know what dangerous people
525. 17:22have been out there are out there and
526. 17:25could be out there in the future
527. 17:27so i hope you guys liked the video like
528. 17:30i said
529. 17:30um please like and subscribe leave a
530. 17:32comment letting me know what you think
531. 17:34any comments about
532. 17:35the case if you know anything that i
533. 17:36don't i would love to know more
534. 17:39so let me know also if you want if you
535. 17:41have any ideas for cases that you want
536. 17:43me to talk about
537. 17:44i will research them and i'll talk about
538. 17:46them so
539. 17:48yeah i will see you guys next