Murderous Minds by Dean Haycock Read Free Book Online Page B

behavior, and the post offense behavior. In my research, I was looking at manifestations of behavior that could be indicative of the 20 traits [which are part of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist]. We are looking for predatory behavior. We are looking for the hunting behavior, which is associated with psychopathy. We are looking for instrumental violence, which has a very strong presence in these kinds of cases. [Instrumental violence is goal-oriented, premeditated, and “cold-blooded.” Reactive violence is impulsive and “hot-blooded”]. We are looking for a lack of empathy for the victim. We are looking for callousness.”
    That is what she often found when she visited the scenes of serial killer-related murders. “You have the presence of this cold-blooded, instrumentalviolence. It is well planned out. The victims are treated as objects, and there is a level of callousness that is incredible. There is a high risk component to it. There is impulsivity to it. So we don’t just focus on [something like] an addiction and whatever the addiction is associated with.” It is not simply an urge that they need to have satisfied, or a “fix.” “We know there are a lot of other things going on with these people.”
    She frequently sees a level of organization in the work of many serial killers that is quite remarkable and unlike what an addict would display, which might betray desperation. “That behavior shows some level of cognitive functioning that allows these individuals to think under pressure, under stress, under anxiety. But again, when you start seeing traits like predatory behavior—they are hunting humans—and instrumental violence, you can see behaviors that manifest traits of psychopathy. We look at the whole gestalt. We don’t just look and try to explain one behavior.”
    O’Toole understands that some people who don’t investigate crime scenes as a day job may look at some of the weird, strange, sickening behaviors perpetrated by some serial killers and be tempted to explain it as something other than psychopathic sexual sadism. “But if you ask somebody like me who has seen this behavior over and over again, you are less likely to get a reaction because I’ve seen cannibalism, I’ve seen necrophilia, I’ve seen all of those things. And then I’ve ended up meeting the people that have done these things. So when you start talking about compulsions, I certainly respect the opinions of people who have different explanations for this behavior, but I start looking for paraphilic behaviors.” O’Toole acknowledges that paraphilic behaviors can sometimes be compulsive. “But that is part of what sexual offenders are: they are motivated by their paraphilic behaviors so it is that sexual pathology in the embodiment of somebody who basically does not care about other people; they have no conscience.” Their actions are done to serve themselves and to satisfy their own desires. In these cases, the desires are sexual, but other criminal psychopaths are driven by desires for personal gain. We don’t know enough about the brain to explain why a very small number of criminal psychopaths become serial killers with paraphilia and others follow other criminal pursuits.
    O’Toole cannot say a particular serial killer is a psychopath unless he (or—rarely—she) has been evaluated. But when she applies her analysis tomany of the cases she has worked, it allows her to say “in my opinion, this person manifests traits of psychopathy.”
    Conduct (Disorder) Unbecoming
    Although LTK apparently avoided the Homicidal Triad and a career as a killer or serial killer, according to his clinical history, he nevertheless began to display plenty of other disturbing behaviors from a very young age. In kindergarten, he did not play cooperatively with other children. Perhaps it was his hyperactivity; he was often uncontrollable and unruly. He troubled his teachers and parents in school by skipping classes, by lying, and by