Long before he captured Elizabeth, Vinson Filyaw was a hunted man.

He roamed at night. He stared out at the world from his hidden lair, a man driven by an insatiable hunger for revenge against the authority he had come to hate.

And so now, now that he had the girl, it was a thrill to watch from complete safety, the chaos he, Vinson, had created.

The crying mother begging for her daughter.

Deputies scurrying around without the faintest clue where to look.

Or so we assumed it must have seemed for the man, or -- was he a monster? -- who did this thing.

Vinson himself has agreed to submit to an interview, and we are to take a unsettling tour through the mind of a very disturbed man.

Vinson Filyaw: I mean, it was like-- she was on TV. Every time and --  the police were saying she was a runaway, and her mama was saying that she wasn't, and her sister was saying that she wasn't. It was-- it was exciting.

Better yet, it was all according to plan, Vinson’s scheme for revenge.

And oh, he was angry.

After all, he didn't voluntarily take up living like this, hiding in a bunker and living his life as a hunted man.

No, Vinson was happier remembering way back to the time he went to Christian schools, an all American boy.

Vinson Filyaw: My real dad died when I was one and my mother remarried and we had pretty much a normal family. I mean, nothing traumatic. Nothing you would think would make a person go out and do something crazy or psychotic or anything like that.

Vinson was a Boy Scout, loved the outdoors. Loved camping. A lot.

Vinson Filyaw: It was in the late ‘80s, Rambo movies were big and between martial arts and the Rambo movies we pretty much every weekend we did some different mission. You know, like steal the flag from somewhere. We were like the teenage commandos.

Anyway, by then he'd fallen head over heels in love -- for booze.

So, years later when he hooked up with Cindy Hall, Vinson found something like redemption from his alcoholism. He found occasional work in construction. He could be a dad to her three kids.

Oh, and he loved those kids. Especially the one he called Peanut.

Vinson Filyaw: Me and her grew real close. I mean, we were inseparable you know? She pretty much felt like she was my little, second housewife if you know what I mean.

But then Peanut had to go and tell on him -- some crazy stories she told her teacher. How could she betray him that way?

Because then the police started snooping around.

Vinson Filyaw: Kershaw County never came and questioned me. Instead they questioned everyone I worked with. You know, they never came in the house. Why not ask me whether I did something or not?

Oh, he knew they believed Peanut. The girl's story would put him in jail, and that's why he started hiding out in the woods.

Vinson Filyaw: I wasn’t going to jail. And I didn't care if I had to live in the woods for the rest of my life, you know?

He had a tent out there for a while but that was temporary, while he did what he had to do every day for weeks, and then months. Planning. Digging.

For his idea he was going to need a bunker, something elaborate, underground.

Vinson Filyaw: Well, it had all the furnishings of home. I had a solar shower for hot water. I had propane gas stove. I had a fireplace in there for cooking without using the propane. It had a collapsible top, so that when it was shut you wouldn't see it. I mean, I was very careful not to get caught. I had a cell phone -- had a 12 volt system for everything. I had 12 volt lighting, had 12 volt TV. I mean, it had all the necessities of home.

And here was what was so delicious: his new underground home, so well hidden in the dense wood, was practically in his own backyard.

Sometimes at night he would sneak out to see his Cindy and she brought food and supplies to a drop spot nearby.

From his bunker in the dark Vinson could see his neighbors’ lights twinkling in the distance. He heard their dogs yelp at each other.

He skulked around the woods and schemed revenge.

And that's how he spent nearly a year, thinking about that little girl, Peanut, and what she had done. Brooding about those deputies and how they believed her, and who did they think they were?

Vinson Filyaw: I guess you could say I’m a person that holds a grudge...

Of course, he wasn't just sitting there getting bitter.

Vinson slipped out to Wal-Mart and bought handcuffs, and night vision goggles, and a Taser, and a gun.

Those were Vinson’s tools, so he could kidnap Peanut, abuse her horribly -- just like they accused him of already doing -- and then he would:

Vinson Filyaw: I don't know. Kill her or something, I don't know.

And then those meddling authorities took her out of state, ruined his plan, even as it possibly saved her life.

Vinson Filyaw: Yeah, I’m sure it did.

And so, out there in the woods, in his bunker, Vinson dreamed of another plan. It was a big dream.

Vinson Filyaw: The second plan was to kidnap somebody else, and to basically, to draw all of Kershaw County into one general area and then just blow them all up.

What an idea! Mass murder, his own suicide, and an under-aged girl as bait.

Video   Face to face with a predator Kidnapper Vinson Filyaw’s arrest didn’t exactly set the record straight. ‘It was exciting,’ says Filyaw. Dateline NBC

Vinson booby trapped his bunker with explosives.

He created a shirt that made him look like he was one of those Kershaw County deputies he hated so much, and he started stalking the school bus in his own neighborhood right there at the edge of the woods.

And one day he found the perfect girl, just right for a man of Vinson’s appetites: a virgin. A 14-year-old. Elizabeth.

Vinson Filyaw: She wasn't Elizabeth. She was, you know, collateral damage.

Yes, and now he looked at her, sitting there in his bunker, crying and trembling.

He watched the search on TV, heard the helicopters above him, knew they couldn't see him. He was shielded by his $1.99 shiny thermal blanket, even when he walked outside.

Vinson Filyaw: I literally walked around while the helicopter was flying, and they never saw me. Because the aluminum foil in the polyurethane blocks the thermal imagery.

Any day now, his plan would have its climax. The deputies were on their way. Soon it would all be over.

He would have his revenge.

Vinson Filyaw: I was in a game mode. My one and only purpose was to get back at Kershaw County, at all cost. It all fell together like clockwork. I mean, I didn't have to do anything.

And then, down there in the bunker, something quite unexpected began worming its way into Vinson’s twisted brain.

Elizabeth, recall, realized that to survive and escape, she'd have to make him believe she liked him. And it worked.

Keith Morrison: You became fond of her.

Vinson Filyaw: Yeah.

Keith Morrison: How did that happen?

Vinson Filyaw: Well, she is a smart, intelligent young lady.

Now, looking back, he's decided that he "allowed” Elizabeth to steal his phone, to send that text message and thus save herself. It was pPart of his plan to blow everybody up, he claims.

Keith Morrison: You mean, you intended that she should call?

Vinson Filyaw: Well, if they never came, I could a never done anything.

But then he knew they were on to him; the jig was up; he got scared, and he ran.

Keith Morrison: Then why did you leave?

Vinson Filyaw: I don't know. Like I said, it was more or less a game.

Keith Morrison: You didn't really want to die at all.

Vinson Filyaw: No, I didn't.

The carjacking idea as a way to get away? Disastrous of course, as much of his life had been.

Vinson Filyaw: There was cops everywhere. So I got down on my knees and put my hands up in the air.

His arrest, should you choose to believe his version of things, was -- shall we say -- 'robust.'

Vinson Filyaw: I mean, all three of them just jumped on me and beat the crap out of me. Honestly, I thought they were going to kill me after they started beating me like that.

And then Vinson was outfitted in a prison ensemble and settled into much brighter and cleaner accommodations than his bunker had afforded and awaited legal developments.

But did he still have a bombshell up his sleeve? Oh yes, he did. And now, on the eve of his trial, he decided to let us in on his big secret.

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