CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the final hours of a marathon interrogation with East Cleveland Police, accused serial killer Michael Madison told detectives that he hoped his story would inspire men like him to get the psychiatric help they need.

"I don't want this to go down and be for nothing," he said. "I don't want this to just be, you know, a spectacle."

After admitting that he strangled Shirellda Terry, 18, and Shetisha Sheeley, 28, during fits of rage, Madison reminisced about the months during which prosecutors say he killed three women.

Prosecutors let the recording of Madison's interrogation run in what was one of the final days before the state rests its case. If the 12 jurors find him guilty, Madison could be sentenced to death or life behind bars.

The 35-year-old said he was in a drug- and alcohol-fueled haze for much of the year leading to his arrest, all while repressing a growing sense of anger toward his mother and the mother of his two children.

"I thought I was at peace at the time," Madison said. Later, "I thought I was doing a better job at coping."

Two years before his July 2013 arrest, Madison asked his mother for help, he said. In response, she told him to be a man.

"It was pretty much the same thing I got from everybody, even the ones who care about me," Madison said. "You're a man.

"Anything less than me graduating from high school, going to college and becoming a doctor or a lawyer...she was unsatisfied."

Growing feelings of inadequacy drove him to drink. Afraid that his mother would leave him on the streets if he asked to move in, Madison said he began selling marijuana and renting out spare rooms in his apartment at the corner of Hayden and Shaw avenues.

His street business brought him in contact with new women.

He began dating Brittany Darby in the spring of 2012. He continued to meet other women on the side, even after he convinced Darby to move in with him and pay rent.

Darby testified earlier in the trial that Madison told her that he "hated the female species."

Among women Madison entertained that fall was Sheeley, a woman he met through a friend. One October night, Madison caught her rummaging around in his clothing drawers, he told detectives.

"I said what are you doing?" Madison said. "She said f--k you."

Madison told the detectives he grabbed her by the neck and cornered her in the bedroom, holding her throat until she fell limp.

After Sheeley was dead, Madison moved her body several times before dumping it in a patch of bushes about 125 feet away from his apartment. He struggled during the interrogation to remember exactly where he put her.

"My birthday was around the corner and I was like, oh s--t," Madison said. "I was drinking by myself, pretty much just drinking and driving. It was kind of like a thrill for me. It felt like a video game, just swerving."

Madison never fully remembered or acknowledged killing Angela Deskins, 38, who disappeared two months before his May 2013 arrest. Her body was found inside a nearby vacant home. He said that he remembered meeting her around March or April that year through a friend.

Madison met Terry June 3 of that year as she walked home from school, according to prosecutors. He eventually confessed to choking her to death as well, placing her inside a bag like his other victims, feet and neck tied together and body folded in half at the waist.

Madison left her to decompose in his closet. At times during the interrogation, it appeared that he forgot where he left her until the body began to smell. He moved her body to a neighboring garage and leaned her up against his parked car, where it sat in the summer heat until the smell became so potent that it spread to the street outside.

That's when someone at the cable company next door called police.

"I couldn't see it for myself," Madison said in the interrogation room. "I didn't even want to fathom what tomorrow was going to bring for me. I guess this is pretty much the end."

If you want to comment on this story, please visit today's crime and courts comments section.