"The Story" continues...

He said that while riding the subway home from the Prince Hall Masonic Temple in Harlem on Monday, he heard voices and felt powerful. Strangers began speaking to him about his mother and he "felt like Neo from 'The Matrix.'" When he got home to the Prospect Heights apartment he shared with his Haitian immigrant mother, Yannick, 55, he gave her a hug, knowing what he had to do.

Inside was a single, child-sized bed, a small chest of drawers, three upright wooden chairs and a gas heater – all furnished by Jenny Elliot. The place was "spotless": two iPhones, some sim cards and an Apple notebook sat on a table.

"I knew I would never see my mother again," he said. "I gave her lots of love." He went to his room and lit candles, placed a dagger and a 3-foot ceremonial Freemason sword by his side.

A lettings agent who held a spare key showed the policeman in. He was asked to wait downstairs as the officer went up and entered the curtained rooms. Then he entered the bathroom, and found a holdall in the bathtub. Red liquid seeped from it. Inside was a body, in such a contorted position that he thought its "legs and arms had been cut off".

Det Sgt Dave Thomas described the attack as "nasty", and "completely unprovoked and cowardly".

In normal circumstances, they would be required to make a physical identification. However, given the degree of decomposition, police would rely on family photos.

The building in which the body was found was owned by a private company, registered offshore, called New Rodina. Rodina was Russian for "motherland".

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He spent more than a decade in federal prison after being convicted in the late 1980s of taking part in what federal prosecutors called the "largest domestic marijuana syndicate in American history," a string of 29 farms in Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and Wisconsin.

There were allegations that he had been involved in a child prostitution ring and had molested a minor.

Work became his life. He rarely even went out after work, excepting an occasional "drink with colleagues". He worked late into the night and rose early. There was something oppressively austere about him, those colleagues thought, something they used to call his "GDR sensibility". So serious and quiet was he that when he did become animated, he "alarmed people with his unusual laugh".

Neighbors complained that the officers who initially responded failed to do enough to get inside and stop the sword-wielding maniac before his mother died.

Sarah Palin wrote on Facebook: "He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.

Police, who described the man as overweight, shot him twice with Tasers and used tear gas and a baton to subdue him.

His intensity only broke for a moment when he said he was thirsty and his mouth was dry. Guards gave him a wet towelette to dab at his lips.

He was not arrested at that time and instead was permitted to go to Pakistan. There he was detained by the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, an agency notorious for its use of torture.

The first six months his jailers kept the lights on all night, and he couldn't sleep, but that eventually changed.

He was deported to the UK 13 months later with three fingernails missing from his left hand, pulled out with pliers.

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"I just kept cutting her. No one could stop me. I was doing the work of God," he said.

The court heard how police found a series of clip titles stored on his mobile phone, including one entitled "happy slap".

Few of his neighbors thought he was capable of this kind of crime. "He seemed like a troubled soul but was always nice, always shook my hand and gave me a half hug," said Robin Lyle. "He was calm but every once in a while would get agitated and say, 'Have the cops been here, have the cops been here?'" said another neighbor.

Jailing him, Justice Stephen Irwin ordered that the video clips be preserved so the parole board could watch them before he is eventually considered for release. He told him: "Anyone who watches the video clips of some of what you did - and I'm convinced you recorded only some of what you did - will genuinely struggle to understand why you came to do this.

He isn't allowed outside very often, but he exercises. His jailers also gave him the stringed Cuban instrument, which he uses to play music with them. And on Thanksgiving the cook made him a turkey, serving it in a Cuban style, with beans.

Officers from the security services of the United States questioned him from time to time over a six-month period.

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His escape came to light when the roll call of the inmates was taken at 7 am. Escaping through the window, he reached the common wall between circle no. 3 and the jail hospital.

His re-admission to hospital came two weeks after he took an overdose in an apparent attempt to kill himself.

The wall has a small opening for items that are passed between the jail staff. He reached another wall, which has barbed wires on top, and managed to climb over this one too. He then reached the wall of the main gate, probably at a distance away from where the guards are, and again used the pipes and hook to scale it.

Police searched for him, even using a police dog to track him, but they lost the trail near the Bath shopping center.

The last time a prisoner had escaped from the jail was in 1984.

With local trains down, he walked seven miles, then hitchhiked to Doncaster. Twelve hours later, he made it to London.

He had access to funds, through PayPal donations to the WikiLeaks website, had a "network of international contacts", lived a "nomadic" lifestyle, and spent his time in "hiding".

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He imported chemicals and sold them to UK buyers. His chief trade was selling cutting agents for drugs, including the anaesthetic benzocaine. He imported almost as much benzocaine as the entire legitimate UK market.

He dealt in cash and kept records of customers only by initials or nicknames. One customer was listed as "Steve", another as "RP". He had an accountancy qualification - and he recorded inconsequential daily expenses, such as 42p on chocolate.

He did virtually nothing with the money, living in a small flat, not taking fancy holidays or even investing in a decent car.

He said he began to have doubts about the business after contracting chlamydia, gonorrhea and herpes in his first month of work, but was convinced to keep working.

He recently advertised on dating sites for a second wife.

He divorced a woman named Anita in 1995 and at some point, had a daughter.

 "I am rather shy as person [sic] especially with girls, so please make allowances (limited experience)," he wrote on his MySpace page.

On a Facebook page under his name, the only dated entries are from Dec. 7 and 8. The page shows a cryptic message in the "About Me" section. His Facebook profile picture is the red V symbol, and his page includes photos from the film version "V for Vendetta," which was also a graphic novel.

Under religious views, he wrote, "Humanism." His favorite quotation: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth," from the movie "A Few Good Men."

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He has learned German. He has German friends.

He is fighting extradition to Sweden over sex assault allegations made by two women.

One of the charges is that he had unprotected sex with a woman, identified only as Miss A, when she insisted he use a condom.

"The Story" a short built from the latest news stories from around the world continues.