Harvey Guillén

Have you ever heard of the ship of Theseus?

It's an old Greek thought experiment that goes like this.

Picture a wooden ship that sails the seas for decades.

Eventually, a plank rots and gets replaced.

Then another.

Then the mass.

Over time, every piece of the original ship gets swapped out until nothing original remains.

So the question is, is it still the same ship?

It's a question about identity, about whether we're defined by what we're made of or by what we choose to become.

Some people spend their lives trying to escape who they are, building new identities until they forget what's underneath.

But the better you get at wearing disguises, the harder it becomes to take them off.

At some point, you have to ask yourself, if you've replaced every piece of who you were, are you still you?

Or have you become something else entirely?

I'm Harvey Guillen, and this is Killer Stories.

It's 1976 in Norfolk, Virginia, and Steven Russell is exactly the person he's supposed to be.

He's got the conservative haircut, the starch collar, and the job at his family's produce business.

He volunteers as a deputy sheriff on weekends, helping with traffic stops and community events.

On Sundays, he plays the organ at church.

And when he marries Debbie Davis, the police chief's secretary's daughter,

It feels like the final piece clicking into place.