"The Sensation of the Blood": Tommy Lynn Sells on Killing

In a short prison interview excerpt, Tommy Lynn Sells describes the "sensation" of killing with a knife, says the first murder still plays "in slow motion", and says he could never find "that rush" again.

Subject

Tommy Lynn Sells

Runtime

1:16

Content warning: A convicted killer describes cutting a victim with a knife in graphic terms; the narration refers to the murder of a family, including a three-year-old child and a baby.

The Interview

Tommy Lynn Sells was a drifter who was sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of a 13-year-old girl and who claimed to have killed dozens of people across the United States. In this short excerpt from a prison interview, Sells talks about what he felt when he killed. He describes the "sensation" of the blood and of using a knife, says he can still see his first killing "in slow motion", and says each one after that became "more routine". "I can't find the dragon I'm chasing no more," he says; he could not find again "that rush, that same release of anger" he felt the first time.

Historical Context

Sells was arrested in January 2000 for the December 31, 1999, attack in Del Rio, Texas, in which Kaylene "Katy" Harris, 13, was killed. He was sentenced to death on September 20, 2000, and later received a life sentence for the murder of Mary Beatrice Perez, 9, in San Antonio. He confessed to many other killings, including the 1987 murders of the Dardeen family in Ina, Illinois, for which he was never charged. Police estimated he may have killed 22 people; Sells himself claimed more than 70. Many of his claims were never confirmed.

Circumstances of the Interview

The excerpt does not show who interviewed Sells or when. It was posted in 2024 by a compilation channel, which added a short narration. Sells gave several on-camera interviews from death row, including to a forensic psychiatrist for a television series and to network news; which of these this excerpt comes from has not been established.

What the Interview Covers

Sells answers two questions: whether the first killing felt different, and whether there was a release of anger. Before that he describes, in the second person, a killing with a scarf and a knife. He does not name a victim. The narration added by the uploader describes the beating deaths of the Dardeen mother and children, but nothing in Sells's words ties his description to that crime or to any other.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The clip records Sells's own description of his motive: a compulsion he compared to a drug addict "chasing the dragon", and anger. It is his claim about his inner state, in his own words.

Archival Importance

Sells was executed in Huntsville, Texas, on April 3, 2014. His many confessions, some accurate and some not, have made it hard to establish how many people he killed. His own recorded words are part of that record.

Important Caveats

The uploader's narration contains errors: Sells was executed for one murder (Katy Harris), not for "killing 22 people"; 22 is a police estimate and 70 is his own claim. In the Dardeen murders, Elaine Dardeen gave birth during the attack; the baby was newborn, not "unborn". The clip does not show which crime Sells is describing. The source and date of the interview are not known.

Narrator: This disturbing interview with Tommy Lynn Sells, in which he describes what it felt like to kill. Authorities believe he killed 22 people, but Sells claims it was upwards of 70. In 2014, he was executed. He murdered an entire family, bludgeoning a pregnant woman, her three-year-old and her unborn baby to death.

Tommy Lynn Sells: It's, it's the sensation of, of the blood. It's the sensation of [unclear: "tying" / "T"] that scarf around your neck, and just watching your eyes. Just, it's, it's a sensation, seeing that skin pull apart. It's, it's sensation, sticking that knife in and just pulling, and knowing it's sharp enough to just go all the way up.

Interviewer: Was there anything different the first time when you killed a person? Was there a different rush, a different feeling?

Tommy Lynn Sells: That first one, I can still see it in slow motion. And each one after that became more [unclear: "sped up" / "speeded up" / "speed it up"], more routine. I can't find the dragon I'm chasing no more. I can't find that rush, that same release of anger I felt that first time.

Interviewer: So there was a release of anger?

Tommy Lynn Sells: Oh, without a doubt. It [unclear: "like busted a piece of glass" / "is like a piece of glass"], and there's just little shivers all up in there. *[Music to the end of the clip, 1:16.]* ---