Hello everyone, and welcome back to Scary Interesting.
What's the closest you've ever been to a true psychopath?
Like, for example, did you ever know someone
who went on to commit some horrific crime later in life?
Maybe you went to school with them, or worked with them, or they lived in your neighborhood.
Were there signs they might be capable of doing some horrible thing,
or did they seem totally normal until one day, they just weren't?
Well, for the person in this story, there were plenty of signs from very early on.
And yet, the eventual crimes were still far more terrifying than anyone could have anticipated.
As a warning, although the events described in this video are fleeting and non-descriptive,
they are still highly disturbing, so viewer discretion is strongly advised.
[intro music]
Already at a young age, Danny LaPlante was a serial thief.
But he wasn't just a thief who broke in and stole your things;
Danny liked to take it further.
He actually wanted to mess with people's heads.
In 1985, he was just 15 years old, and he'd already started entering people's homes,
taking jewelry, money, and any other stuff he could find.
But he also wouldn't just take things;
he also liked to move stuff around or even leave things behind for people to find.
Sometimes this was subtle, but other times0 he'd make it obvious
because he wanted people to feel like something was wrong,
almost to suspect that somebody had been in their private spaces,
but not quite know for sure.
He actually wanted people to think they were losing their minds.
He was born on May 15th, 1970 in Massachusetts at the edge of Boston,
and to say his childhood was a mess would be a serious understatement.
Even as a kid, he was frequently in trouble with the police,
and even as a toddler, was apparently violent to the point of sociopathic.
The full details of his run-ins with police aren't really clear
because he was still a minor when they occurred, and so the cases are sealed, but either way,
it was enough for him to develop a reputation in his neighborhood and at school.
And these issues were also present in school.
He had dyslexia at a time when it wasn't taken seriously, and this held him back,
so most of his teachers assumed he was either stupid, or lazy, or both.
Things didn't go much better on the social side of school either.
Danny apparently didn't look after himself.
He didn't care about his appearance or hygiene, so he often smelled badly.
Then, because of his hygiene and other issues, he didn't really have any friends.
At the same time, he also didn't really care about not having friends either.
He didn't like to talk to the other kids and didn't like it when they talked to him.
So most of the people he went to school with described him as a bit weird and even creepy.
However, while most of his teachers assumed the worst,
some of the more attentive teachers at his school
thought there might be some underlying condition causing his behavior.
Eventually, they arranged for him to see a psychiatrist, and after a few sessions,
Danny was diagnosed with hyperactivity disorder or what we know today as ADHD.
In the mid 1980s, when the condition wasn't so well-understood, and combined with dyslexia,
the behavior might be mistaken for intentionally acting out.
A violent father might then assume their son needed strong discipline,
but even still, Danny's father's punishment went far beyond strong discipline.
Although things were bad enough at school, they were even worse at home.
His home was a filthy, dull blue, wood-framed house filled with garbage.
The yard outside was the same, with old cars and car parts piled on each other,
and things were just as messy between Danny and both his dad and stepdad.
Both Danny's birth father and stepfather used physical, emotional,
and other forms of punishment to exert power over Danny and his siblings.
To make matters worse, Danny's time with his psychiatrist
should have let him deal with his issues and find coping mechanisms.
But that's basically the opposite of what happened.
Instead, it's alleged that when the psychiatrist found out what Danny had gone through,
he made advances himself, kicking off a year of exploitation
at the hands of another man Danny thought he trusted.
So instead of his issues being dealt with through counseling,
his behavior only got more extreme.
While all of this was going on, the people who knew Danny
were getting more and more concerned with his increasingly odd behavior.
At ten, he would go into the woods behind the neighbors houses for hours on his own.
And this made the neighbors nervous, even then.
At around that time, a variety store was broken into,
and most people suspected it was Danny and one of his few friends,
but there was no proof.
Not much later, Danny would start breaking into the houses around the woods.
Then, when just taking stuff didn't give him enough of a buzz,
he began to move things around to mess with people's minds.
It's been suggested that this was a way for him to regain control;
becoming an unknown threat in the local area
was a way for him to have some sort of power over his life.
But as often happens, Danny needed to escalate the mind games to keep that sense of control.
In 1986, when Danny was 16, he burglarized a house
in the small town of Pepperell, just six miles from his hometown.
And while he was there, he saw a picture of the two girls
who lived in the house named Karen and Tina Bowen.
Tina was 15, and Danny thought she was pretty and wanted to get to know her better.
It's thought that Danny then wrote down the phone number of the house while he was there.
Then a couple days later, he called the number and asked to speak to the girls.
And he told Tina he had a mutual friend who went to their school, and that's how he got the number.
Then he lied, claiming he was athletic, blonde, handsome, and a good student at school.
After a few phone calls, Tina and Danny started to become close
and eventually decided to meet up on a date during the Easter break.
As you might imagine, the date did not go well.
Tina was looking forward to showing off her new good-looking boyfriend to her friends,
but when she opened her door to meet Danny for the first time,
he was the opposite of what he described.
He was greasy and poorly-dressed and smelled bad,
and was far-less good looking than what he said.
Even still, not wanting to be rude and turn him down then and there,
she decided to go to the local fair with him for ice cream.
Maybe his personality was more likeable than his appearance.
Unfortunately, she quickly found out his personality was much worse than his physical appearance.
Early on in their conversation, Tina told Danny that her mother had died of cancer not long ago,
and so she and her sister were being taken care of by their dad.
But rather than move past the obviously difficult subject,
Danny was obsessed with her mother's cancer.
He wanted to know all the details of how she suffered, what it was like to watch her die,
and how Tina felt while all these things happened.
This was obviously incredibly creepy and uncomfortable for Tina,
so just an hour after they started their date, Tina found an excuse to leave, and then left.
Then when Easter break ended and school started up again,
Tina was told by some friends that Danny had been accused of assault.
Even if it wasn't true, the allegations
plus his creepy behavior were enough to scare Tina off for good.
So when Danny asked if she wanted to go out again, she said no.
By then, she wanted nothing to do with him.
The death of her mother was still quite raw.
Having someone she barely knew drag out those emotions out of her
wasn't something she wanted to experience again.
She was still mourning and would do anything to talk to her mom just one more time.
And that's where things got weird.
Tina and her sister had heard about a way to contact people who were no longer around.
One evening, the two girls decided to try and contact their mom
by going to the basement and performing a seance.
During this, they tried all the things they'd read and seen on TV,
but nothing worked, so they stopped, a little disappointed, and went to bed.
Little did they know, they stirred something, although maybe it wasn't what they'd hoped for.
That night, as they slept, Tina was woken up by a tapping on the walls of their room.
She sat upright and called Karen over to her room,
asking her to listen carefully to make sure she hadn't imagined it.
But there it was; a knocking too rhythmic to be anything random.
Maybe the seance had worked after all, and their mom was trying to talk to them.
Then they start to ask her questions, and their mom actually replied;
two taps for yes, one tap for no.
Then, every night afterward, their mom would return to them,
tapping on the walls to let them know she was there.
Soon after that though, the spirit went from just keeping the girls awake
to moving things around inside the house.
Furniture would move from room to room, and they'd wake up to find items across the floor
that had been neatly put away the night before.
TV channels also started to change whenever they left the room,
and milk and alcohol would disappear from their fridge.
Soon, the girls realized this wasn't their mom. Whatever it was, it was not a friendly spirit.
This haunting continued for months and slowly escalated
until finally coming to a head in January 1987.
One night, the knocking began, but it wasn't from the bedroom walls this time;
it was coming from under the floor of the front room, and Tina and Karen were terrified.
So they took a knife from the kitchen and crept downstairs toward the basement.
When they flicked the light on, both girls were so freaked out by what they saw,
that they ran to the neighbor and called their dad to come home.
When the neighbor saw their dad pull up, she went outside to tell him the girls were there,
and that something had scared them in the basement.
First, he went inside the house to check on his daughters,
and then he went back to his own home to check things out.
And in the house, he found a message written on the back wall of their basement
that said: "I'm in your room. Come and find me."
and it was written in what looked like blood.
Unfortunately, despite this, their dad, Frank, was convinced it was the girls.
He didn't believe in ghosts and evil spirits.
Instead, he thought that in their grief, the girls were acting out and doing strange things,
including the haunting they claimed was going on at their home.
In fact, he knew the message hadn't come from a spirit.
A ghost wouldn't use ketchup to write a message on the wall;
that's something kids would do.
So because of this escalation of what he thought was their coping with the loss of their mother,
he told Tina and Karen that they had to go see a counselor from then on.
He knew their mom's death was hard on them, but enough was enough;
they clearly needed more help than he could give them.
But obviously, the girls knew they weren't the ones that were responsible.
A few weeks after that first incident, the whole thing happened again.
This time, the knocking came from behind Tina's bedroom wall,
and inside was another blood red message that read: "I'm back. Find me if you can."
Again, the girls ran into their neighbor terrified,
and Frank came home both annoyed and concerned by how his daughters were behaving.
This time, he went straight to their house instead of going next door,
and as soon as he stepped inside, he knew something was wrong.
He'd spoken to the girls and his neighbor over the phone about what they'd seen,
but what they described wasn't what he saw.
Things had been moved and thrown around, and when he entered Tina's room,
there was a new message which read: "Marry me!"
Shortly after Frank arrived, the neighbor and the girls joined him,
and one of them noticed that someone had used their toilet.
This meant someone was actually in the house, and they weren't from the spirit world.
Frank then started to search around, and it wasn't long before he spotted the evil spirit;
it was Danny.
Now, as a quick note, there are some minor variations in the reporting of this next part.
Some sources say Danny was dressed in Frank's wife's clothes,
wearing her makeup and a blonde wig.
Others say he wore a Native American-style shaggy jacket
with his face painted while wearing a mask.
Both accounts, however, say he held a hatchet in one hand,
but many of the newspapers at the time went with the Native American story.
Either way, Danny then forced them all into a bedroom, but before he could do anything,
Frank lunged at him and began wrestling the hatchet away from him.
Frank tried to hold on, but then Danny got free and ran out of the room,
but then seemed to disappear into thin air, almost like he'd walked through a wall.
While Frank and Danny were fighting as well, Tina jumped out of the bedroom window
and ran to another neighbor who called the police.
Police then searched the house while Frank took his girls to a nearby hotel,
but despite an extensive search,
they couldn't figure out how Danny had managed to hide or leave the house.
Understandably, Frank decided to have them all stay at a hotel for a few days at least.
However, the following day, he needed to go back to the house to get some of their stuff,
but as he was walking up to the house, he saw Danny in a window.
He then turned right back around and called the police again.
An officer nearby then came to the house and opened the door.
Just to his right, he noticed a knife sticking out of the wall
that had been pushed through a family picture.
Then, on the picture, someone had written in all capital letters:
"I'm still here. Come find me!"
And immediately, the officer's hair stood on end.
He then drew his weapon and stepped further inside.
Then he saw another picture with another knife and another message.
That one read: "I'm going to kill you all!"
At that moment, two more police officers arrived and joined the first officer in the search.
Then after looking around some more,
they heard a noise behind a bathroom wall shared with Tina's bedroom.
Then upon checking the wall, they found a small hatch at the back of Tina's cupboards.
The officer then opened it up to find Danny curled in a small crawlspace.
With guns drawn, they forced Danny out of the cupboard
and placed him under arrest, and removed him from the house.
Afterward, they searched the rest of the house,
and they found that the small space behind Tina's cupboard
linked to a triangular area between the foundation and the inner walls.
Inside there as well, Danny had cut some small holes
so that he could spy on Tina no matter where she was or what she was doing.
He'd used this space to terrify them for weeks,
and it looked like he'd been living there all that time.
The police even believed that the girls had a lucky escape.
If they had gone back there on their own, there's a good chance he would have taken their lives.
Following his arrest, Danny was sent to juvenile detention
where he stayed for a little over six months until October of 1987.
Two months later, on December 1st, 1987,
Andrew Gustafson left work early to head home to his family.
He and his wife, Priscilla, already had a seven-year-old daughter, Abigail,
and a five-year-old son, William, and Andrew was excited about the new baby on the way.
On top of that, he just got some great news at work as well.
He worked in real estate and had managed to sell an expensive property,
which meant that a big payday was coming, and it was time to celebrate.
He then called Priscilla from the office to ask her if she could find a babysitter
so they could go to dinner, but there was no answer.
This was weird; Priscilla had a routine.
She'd work at a nursery school in the morning
and then go to their babysitter at around 1 pm to pick up William
before heading home for Abigail to be dropped off by the school bus.
It was unusual for her not to be there that time of day,
so Andrew decided to drive over to make sure everything was alright.
The couple lived in a beautiful old rustic home in a small, isolated patch of forest
that was typically quiet and peaceful.
But it felt eerie that day as Andrew drove up and parked beside his wife's car
because none of the lights were on.
He then walked inside and called for Priscilla, but there was no response.
He quickly checked downstairs and couldn't find anybody,
so he wandered upstairs to see if she was in the bedroom.
Tragically, that's where he found Priscilla, lying face down,
her head was forced into a pillow, and she was surrounded by blood.
Andrew's recollection of the rest of the day is foggy.
He thinks he can remember going into the kitchen to call police and then his parents,
but it was all too much.
He wondered what happened to his kids, but he was terrified of finding out.
He didn't want to look. He didn't even want to imagine that something had happened.
The police arrived shortly afterward and found Andrew broken in the kitchen.
Then they let him outside and sat him in one of their cruisers before going to search the home.
First, they found Priscilla with her hands tied behind her back, face down in the upstairs bedroom.
She had a sock stuffed into her mouth, was tied up,
and was assaulted before being shot at point blank range.
They then searched the rest of the house, looking for William and Abigail,
and would eventually find each of them in the family bathrooms.
Both of them had been forced into a bathtub and drowned;
William upstairs and Abigail downstairs.
When they told Andrew the news, he couldn't bear it.
His whole life had fallen apart in an instant.
After breaking the news to Andrew, straight away, police searched the woods behind the house.
There, they found a blood-soaked shirt and gloves that hadn't even had time to dry.
Quickly, scent dogs were brought out to find out whoever had been wearing the shirt,
and they led police to a house on the other side of the woods.
It was Danny's house.
Danny had been released just two months earlier,
and he was due to be tried as an adult for what he'd done at Frank's house,
so he'd been granted bail pending trial.
Unfortunately, within days of his release,
he returned to breaking into people's houses, stealing their things, and messing with their minds.
Five homes were burglarized the month after he was freed,
and the residents were sure who it was.
On October 14th, Danny entered one of his neighbor's houses
and found a pair of .22 caliber handguns.
This was the sort of thing he'd been hoping for.
After being caught by Frank, he knew he wasn't strong enough to fight back,
so he needed a weapon he could use to subdue people.
Then he got bullets from a friend of his brother.
Then once he had bullets, he spent hours at home practicing,
unloading and reloading the guns, fantasizing about using them.
Then on November 16th, so two weeks before the attack,
Danny broke into the Gustafson's home for the first time.
On that occasion, he only stole a few small things like a cordless phone, and left.
It's not clear why he returned a second time,
but for some reason, he did, and happened to arrive just before Priscilla.
According to Danny, he was startled when she came back,
and at first, he thought about jumping out of a window,
but then he remembered that he had a gun.
So then he walked out, pointed the gun at Priscilla, and led her and William into the bedroom.
Then he forced William into a closet and began tying Priscilla to the bed.
She fought back as best she could, and Danny even thought about leaving once he tied her up,
but something stopped him; something about the power and control he had,
so instead of leaving, he decided to assault her.
Then, after that, he realized they'd both seen his face; he just couldn't let them go anymore.
This is when he decided to take their lives.
After it was finished, as he walked downstairs, Abigail came home.
She was obviously scared to see a blood-soaked stranger in her hallway
and wanted to know what happened to her mom and brother.
Danny then grabbed her, pulled her into the downstairs bathroom,
and told her exactly what he had done to William.
She bravely fought back, but it was no use.
Danny then walked out of the house, back to the woods,
and changed out of his bloody shirt and gloves.
Then, he went to his niece's birthday party, ate cake, tickled the birthday girl,
and horsed around as if nothing ever happened.
Once scent dogs led police to Danny's house, police entered the home and interrogated him.
They were sure he was guilty of the crimes.
Everyone knew his reputation and about the incident with Tina.
However, it was still early in the investigation, and they needed more proof before arresting him.
They then left and planned to return the next day once the forensic team had gathered more evidence.
As you might have expected, Danny didn't wait for them to return.
He fled the home which prompted a search by police.
The following morning, they held a press conference and named Danny
as the main suspect to ensure people were aware he was dangerous.
Later that same day, another of the neighbors
whose house backed onto the same forest, returned home.
As she pulled onto her road, she could see police cars everywhere,
and immediately, she knew why they were there;
everyone in the town knew they were looking for Danny.
Then when she pulled into her garage, she noticed something wasn't right;
something had been moved.
She knew that was Danny's calling card,
so she drove back out and flagged down a passing police car.
When the neighboring police then entered the home, they found Danny,
who jumped out a window and ran into the woods before they could catch him.
The following day, Danny broke into another home
and led the owner to her car at gunpoint and made her drive away.
Thankfully, the first chance she got,
she jumped from the car and ran away and contacted police.
Danny managed to hide for another 24 hours.
By then, his picture had been circulating on the local news channels,
and people were out looking for him.
Unable to stop his impulses though,
he spent much of that time still breaking and entering into people's homes.
Eventually, someone saw him and let police know where he was,
and he was finally caught hiding in a dumpster, curled up like he had been
when he was discovered in the space behind Tina's wardrobe.
When he was found, one of Abigail's hairs was still stuck to him.
They knew then for sure that it had been Danny.
After the loss of his family, Andrew moved back in with his parents
before renting an apartment nearby.
Then, a few months later, he finally went back to his house.
He wanted to reclaim it emotionally,
and he soon saw his good memories as a source of strength.
His friends also helped get him out and keep him occupied,
but he suffered from terrible nightmares for months.
Eventually, he met a 42-year-old widow, and they married on January 1st, 1989.
In the aftermath, in 1988, so the year after the incident occurred,
Danny was tried as an adult for the three murders.
He was then found guilty on all charges,
and sentenced to serve three consecutive life sentences.
29 years later, in 2017, Danny tried to get his sentence reduced.
He claimed he was sorry for what he did
and he claimed to be sorrowful from the depth of his soul.
A psychiatrist examined the supposedly newly-formed Danny LaPlante and saw right through him.
His report claimed that Danny showed no empathy and still tried to minimize what he'd done.
And the testimony from the victim's families was no less harsh.
Danny will be eligible for parole in 2067 at the age of 82.
If you made it this far, thank you so much for tuning in.
If you have a story suggestion, feel free to submit it to the form found in the description,
and hopefully, I will see you in the next one.