Читать книгу Talking with Serial Killers: Dead Men Talking - Christopher Berry-Dee - Страница 9

INTRODUCTION

I have interviewed, face to face, some 30 of the world’s most heinous serial killers, spree killers and mass murderers. I have sat with them on death rows throughout the United States, where the stench of cheap disinfectant, human sweat and evil permeates every brick of these correctional cathedrals, the human warehouses that incarcerate those from the legion of the damned.

I have listened to their sickening tales of murder most foul and their boasts of having caused such suffering, which are often beyond the comprehension of normal souls like you and me.

These sexual psychopaths love to play mind games and often are as cunning as hyenas. They are control freaks who attempt to manipulate even a seasoned criminologist like me, prompting the chilling question: what chance did their vulnerable prey have against such twisted characters, who can appear as innocent as the man or woman next door?

With a new millennium, a new generation of monsters has emerged. Long gone are the likes of Ted Bundy, although his story remains morbidly fascinating. Indeed, books are still being written, and TV documentaries are still produced which dredge up the ‘oldies’ of yesteryear. It seems that not a month goes by without another screening of a programme on Bundy, Arthur Shawcross, Ken Bianchi or Aileen Wuornos. And Ronald DeFeo, a.k.a. ‘The Amityville Horror’, is still ‘hot property’ despite the fact that in the big league of mass-murderers he is relatively small potatoes (this continued interest is mainly due to the horror films based very loosely on his case).

This book delves deep into the dysfunctional minds of some of these social outcasts. This time the gloves are off and I have allowed these monsters to say just what they wanted to… and in doing so, they give away more than they intended. In that respect, this book is what newspapers might call a ‘worldwide exclusive’. Over the years, the interviews I have conducted have always been a play off between the two parties – me and the killer in question. The killers do their best to control you and this is frequently on-the-edge-of-the-abyss time. You are so close to them, breathing in the foul air they expel from their often diseased lungs. And, although it may not be quite as direct, the same can be said of spending hundreds of hours corresponding with them. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that, more often than not, what these murderers write in their correspondence is more important to understanding their psychopathology than what they say in the relatively brief face- to-face interviews. In these interviews, you must remember, the killer is on his own ground, you are there at his behest and it is in surroundings that he or she is familiar with.

To truly get inside the heads of these devious social misfits – where is exactly where we need to be if we are understand the true nature of evil – long periods of correspondence are the key. Every word, sentence, paragraph and page of their letters are a clue to the reason behind their homicidal behaviour, making this book a must-read for all professionals and aficionados with an interest in the causation of the unlawful and wanton destruction of human life.

Some of these social strays can read and write, while others struggle with the simplest words. Some have a brain, others half a brain, and still others obviously have a ‘To Let’ sign planted firmly inside their skulls. A minority are remarkably lucid. And there they sit, in the depths of the prison system, writing away, often reliving their perverted crimes over and over again… in ink this time, not blood.

Each serial murderer and killer is as different as chalk and cheese. There is no common denominator that puts them on the same plate, with the exception of them now peering through cold bars, many of them awaiting execution, or a life term behind razor wire and grim, weather-stained prison walls.

They will never kill again.

Some say a lot, perhaps too much. Others say very little. Some are honest; others indulge themselves in their sickening fantasies. Some deny their crimes, while others admit the whole shebang. But from their words we can all learn something those who commit the ultimate social crime: serial homicide.

CHRISTOPHER BERRY-DEE