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 Three days after convicted kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro hanged himself in his jail cell, NBC News has obtained police interrogation tapes that provide insight into how close he came to being caught — including a phone call he made to one of the victims' mothers — and personal letters in which he writes about long-held thoughts of suicide. 
 
 The 53-year-old former bus driver was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years after pleading guilty to 937 counts including rape, kidnap and aggravated murder following the decade-long incarceration of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight at his Cleveland home. NBC News has obtained four hours of videotape from a source familiar with the criminal investigation showing Castro being interrogated just hours after he was arrested in May. 
 
 Ariel Castro's family claims body, coroner says 
 
 In a TODAY exclusive that aired Friday, excerpts from the video show Castro revealing several close calls with law enforcement over the years before eventually being caught. He also recounts how he abducted and abused the three women. Out of respect for the victims, NBC News is not showing Castro speaking out about the details of his crimes and has reached out to the victims' lawyers to alert them about the report. 
 
 Within hours of Castro’s arrest, he began admitting his horrific crimes to interrogators. He appeared surprised by what he had gotten away with for so long, including the day he abducted DeJesus, then 14, in April of 2004. He said there were surveillance cameras at her middle school that should have captured him just 15 minutes before he kidnapped her. 
 
 When he first abducted Knight in August of 2002, Castro said he had a girlfriend who visited his house and noticed a television on in the room where Knight was being secretly held. 
 
 
 
 “She seen that I had a TV on in the upstairs room,’’ Castro said in the interrogation video. “And she says, ‘What is that? You have a TV on up there?’ And my heart started beating, and I was like, ‘OK, she's probably catching onto something.” 
 
 Castro said he even once used Berry’s cell phone to call her mother and tell her that Berry was alive after abducting her in April of 2003. 
 
 “I think I said something ... that I have her daughter and that she's OK and that she's my wife now — something like that, you know, probably not the exact words,’’ Castro said in the police tapes. 
 
 Castro said he hung up before having any conversation with Berry’s mother. Neither Castro nor any of his close relatives were ever interviewed by authorities at that time for Berry’s disappearance following the phone call, he said. 
 
 Today Convicted kidnapper Ariel Castro is interrogated just hours after his arrest in May. 
 
 “Nothing led us to talk to him,’’ FBI special agent Vicki Anderson told NBC News in May. “You know, there were no indications that we should go talk to him. We canvassed the neighborhood. We did all of those things. Nothing led us to Ariel Castro.” 
 
 
 
 Castro also talked about how his now-6-year-old daughter with Berry, who was born in his house, begged him to stop locking all the doors. On the day the three captive women escaped, he left a bedroom door open, which allowed Berry to make it to the front door and yell for help. Two neighbors came over, and a hole was kicked through the bottom of the door to allow Berry to crawl through with her daughter. Berry then called 9-1-1 and Castro was apprehended. 
 
 “I know I let my guard down,’’ Castro said in the interrogation video. 
 
 NBC News also obtained a pair of letters Castro wrote to his children around Father’s Day while he was in jail. 
 
 “I still can’t believe what I did to put me in the situation that I’m in now,’’ he wrote. 
 
 
 
 Related: Ariel Castro's death is 'last slap' to victims' faces, psychologist says 
 
 “Everything he has done is indicative of a narcissistic personality disorder,” forensic psychologist Dr. J. Buzz Von Ornsteiner told TODAY. “He's self-centered. He's self-absorbed. It's all about him.” 
 
 When investigators searched Castro’s home in May, they found a note from 2004 in which he contemplated suicide, writing, “I want to put an end to my life and let the devil deal with me.” Castro was initially on suicide watch when he was first put in jail, but had been downgraded before he hung himself with a bedsheet in an Ohio state prison on Tuesday, according to his attorney, Craig Weintraub. Prison officials are investigating how he was able to hang himself, as he was supposed to be checked by guards every half hour. 
 
 His thoughts of suicide were also apparent during the interrogation. 
 
 “I just want to crash through the window,’’ he said. 
 
 “These degenerate molesters are cowards,’’ Tim McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor who secured Castro’s conviction, said in a statement released Thursday. “They con and capture vulnerable children. This man couldn’t take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for more than a decade. 
 
 “Let this be a message to other child kidnappers: There will be a heavy price to pay when you are caught. You won’t enjoy the captive side of the bars.” 
 
 Editor's note: An earlier version of this report identified the police interrogation tapes as FBI tapes. ||||| Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro said he called the mother of one of his captives and told the woman her daughter was alive and had become his wife, according to interrogation tapes. 
 
 FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2013 file photo, Ariel Castro bows his head in the courtroom during his sentencing sentencing in Cleveland. Castro, 53, now serving a life sentence for the kidnapping and rape,... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this July 26, 2013 Ariel Castro sits in a Cleveland courtroom where he pleaded guilty to 937 counts of rape and kidnapping for holding three women captive in his home for a decade. Castro,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Castro also told investigators that authorities missed opportunities to catch him while he held the three women captive for more than a decade in a house with boarded up windows where they were repeatedly beaten and raped. 
 
 Castro says in the video _ obtained by NBC and first reported Friday on the "Today" show _ that he told Berry's mother that her daughter was OK. He says he made the call on Amanda Berry's cellphone. 
 
 "I think I said something ... that I have her daughter and that she's OK, and that she's my wife now _ something like that, you know, probably not the exact words," he told investigators. 
 
 When asked for the mother's response, Castro said: "I hung up so we didn't have a conversation." 
 
 Castro, 53, was a month into his life sentence when he committed suicide Tuesday night. His family collected his body from the Franklin County Coroner's office Friday. 
 
 Castro also told investigators that authorities missed opportunities for catching him while he held the kidnapped women, who were ages 14, 16 and 20 when captured. 
 
 Castro told investigators that cameras at the school of victim Gina DeJesus should have captured him there 15 minutes before she was abducted. 
 
 "You could have broke the case right then and there," he said. 
 
 Castro said a girlfriend noticed a TV on in a room occupied by victim Michelle Knight and got him worrying he might be caught. 
 
 "Was it a close call?" an investigator said. 
 
 "Yeah," he said. 
 
 A message was left with representatives of the victims Friday morning. 
 
 The "Today" show report also provides additional details about a 2004 note Castro wrote that investigators found when they searched the house. "I want to put an end to my life and let the devil deal with me," a section of the note read. 
 
 Two state reviews are underway, Ohio prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said, one looking into the suicide itself, and the other is examining whether Castro received proper medical and mental health care leading up the suicide. 
 
 Castro was sentenced Aug. 1 to life in prison plus 1,000 years after pleading guilty to 937 counts, including kidnapping and rape, in a deal to avoid the death penalty. "I'm not a monster. I'm sick," he told the judge at sentencing. 
 
 Castro's captives _ Berry, DeJesus and Michelle Knight _ disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004. They were rescued from Castro's run-down house May 6 when Berry broke through a screen door. 
 
 Investigators said the women were bound, repeatedly raped and deprived of food and bathroom facilities. 
 
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 Associated Press Writer Julie Carr Smyth contributed to this report. 
 
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 Andrew Welsh-Huggins can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/awhcolumbus.
– Just when you thought the worst details of the Cleveland kidnapping case had been aired, more facts emerge via police tapes of Ariel Castro's interrogation. In addition to Castro describing his thoughts of suicide, NBC News reports the tapes reveal a shocking confession: Castro once called Amanda Berry's mom—using Berry's cellphone—to tell her her daughter was safe and now his "wife." He hung up before she could respond, Castro said. Castro also explains on the tapes that it was his own young daughter (born to Berry) who pleaded with him to unlock his house's doors, ultimately leading to the three women's escape: "I let my guard down," he said, when he left a bedroom door open, allowing Berry to yell for help from the front door. NBC News notes that Castro seemed surprised he got away with his crimes for so long, telling police they missed a chance to catch him on surveillance cameras outside Gina DeJesus' school. "You could have broke the case right then and there," he said, per the AP. And though he wouldn't commit suicide for another nine years, a 2004 note shows Castro long battled suicidal thoughts. "I want to put an end to my life," he wrote, "and let the devil deal with me." During the interrogation, he told police, "I just want to crash through the window."