The footage of Israel Keyes being apprehended by the Texas Rangers is really special. It cuts through the mythology that true crime fans and other true crime creators have built up around Keyes.
This mythology presents him as a careful, meticulous planner; a good father who compartmentalized his crimes away from his family; a criminal mastermind who was only caught through sheer luck.
The truth is that Keyes was caught through the cooperative determination of law enforcement that worked tirelessly to comb through the trail of evidence that Keyes - arrogant, egotistical, and impulsive - left behind.
That cooperative determination to find Samantha Koenig, including the work of one observant Texas Ranger thousands of miles away from where she went missing, is what led to Keyes arrest.
The arrest in Texas may be the only time we see the real Israel Keyes, stripped of the mask of sanity he uses to pretend to be confident, typical of the false competence of the psychopath.
Dispossessed of his bravado, we see him as he truly is - insecure, nervous, and afraid. The next time we see Keyes, it is just hours later when the Rangers begin interrogating him around 3:00 PM.
His mask has returned; he is smug once more despite losing everything, and despite the fact that he’ll never be a free man again.
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