Book Review
Title: The Psychology of Notorious Serial Killers: The Intersection of Personality Theory and the Darkest Minds of Our Time by Todd Grande
Genre: Non-Fiction/Crime
Rating: 5 Stars
As many of you will know I am absolutely fascinated with both fictional and non-fiction book about serial killers, Hannibal and Mindhunter are some of my favourites. So, I couldn’t wait to jump into this book as it centres on psychology which is another area I am deeply interested in. In the opening chapter Grande lays out the questions he wants to answer in relation to Personality Theory and serial killers and how he is going to go about doing this. It is also wise to keep in mind that the author states himself that he isn’t looking to diagnose the serial killers but to provide opinions only. The next chapter focuses on providing the fundamental information about the different disorders he is going to be looking into from a clinical perspective. Grande starts by going through the Five Factor Model and its many facets and what it means to score highly in certain areas and how they all correlate with each other. Grande goes on to explain how the Five Factor Model (FFM) links to two personality constructs found in serial killers; psychopathy and narcissism. Grande explains what psychopathy and narcissism are, how they are diagnosed and how these relate to serial killers with example of behaviour and known serial killers that exhibit these behaviours strongly. He also explains some common disorders that serial killers are diagnosed with and the correlation between them.
As we cross into Section 2, Grande is now looking at the different motivations serial killers have and he starts with serial killers who kill for money and he is using James Bulger as an example. Grande goes through Bulger’s history and criminal life but what we are most interested in his FFM score and how this relates to his life of crime. Grande also explains how serial killers like Bulger doesn’t exhibit quintessential sexual domination behaviour as he kills for money, status and control and when he killed, he did it in an efficient manner that suggests he wasn’t getting any pleasure from the act of killing, it was just another method of gaining control and power.
The next chapter focuses on serial killers that kill in order to advance an ideology and the example he is using is Ted Kaczynski who most would know as the Unabomber. Kaczynski was atypical for a serial killer his intent wasn’t really to kill and even in all the year he was active he only killed 3 people but injured over 23. His main purpose for the bombs was to gain attention towards his ideology and to get his manifesto published. However, during his trial he was diagnosed with schizophrenia as he suffered from delusions but what really made Kaczynski stand out among other serial killers was his high intelligence and the amount of organization and planning that went into his attacks as creating the bombs and choosing his targets was a highly methodical process.
We then move onto psychotic serial killers and the example Grande has chosen is Ed Gein, who was a huge inspiration for Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw movies, Norman Bates from Psycho and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. Ed Gein as Grande explains is the closest known serial killer that could be classified as a sexual dominate killer but it is clear to see that while his killings had a sexual element to them they were grounded in transformation rather than domination. The comparisons made between the real life Ed Gein and his fictional counterparts are startling as Ed Gein was so dependent on his mother than he believes he could transform into her but creating a skin suit from women that resembled his mother which is seen in both Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill. Gein was also known for creating morbid items out of his victims which is seen in Leatherface and it was interesting to see his FFM score where he wasn’t antisocial as he has good relationship with children and continued to get babysitting jobs even when he couldn’t get any other type of work and children were never a target of Gein’s.
We then move into section 3 where Grande is beginning to transition from the previous types of serial killers he has been looking at to sexual domination serial killers. Grande explains the manty psychological and environmental factor and stressors that are usually found in sexual domination serial killers but also explains why these kinds of killers are so rare because the combination and timing of these factors is extremely precise and changes from killer to killer. In the next couple of chapters, he is going to be looking at several different sexual domination serial killers, why they are classified as this type of serial killers and how they differ or are similar to one another. One thing that is always present is a dysfunctional relationship with women usually coming from a dysfunctional relationship with a mother, girlfriend or wife, however, there are exceptions to this. Grande makes it clear at the beginning of the chapter that there are female sexual domination serial killers and male sexual domination serial killers that kill other men but since the majority are men that kill women this is what he is focusing on.
The first serial killer Grande examines his Dennis Rader, the BTK killer. Grande goes through Rader’s killings and the behaviour he most likely exhibited before, during and after these crimes. Rader was also a serial killer that enjoyed taunting the police, even after his arrest, he taunted them with the clues to his identity that they missed. Rader also breaks from the quintessential sexual domination serial killer in many ways as he had periods of many years where he was inactive, he didn’t have a history of trauma and unlike many other serial killers he was able to hold down a job, have a family and from the outside appear completely normal even if he did appear overly strict and a bit of a perfectionist. Rader is the perfect example for how a sexual domination serial killer might not fit the “classic” profile which is why he was so difficult for the FBI to profile and capture and most likely would not have been caught when he was if it wasn’t for the mistakes he made triggered by his narcissistic tendencies.
The next killer is Richard Ramirez “The Night Stalker”, is a killer who is almost the direct opposite of Dennis Rader. Ramirez was impulsive, disorganised and immature in his killings, he had a history of trauma both physical and mental as he suffered two major head injuries before the age of 5. Also, before he was 14 he was exposed to sexual sadism and voyeurism but two cousins and also witnesses one of his cousins kill his girlfriend and he would continue to be a major influence in Ramirez’s left even after his released from a mental hospital. Ramirez also differs from Rader in the fact all 13 of his murders and his numerous other crimes were committed in the space of just over a year whereas Rader’s killing sprees were much longer with years between them. Ramirez was also aware that there was serial killer on the loose and the police were looking for this person while committing crime and even knew in advance that he has been identified before trying to car jack three separate vehicles before a mob attacked him prior to the arrival of the police who saved his life. However, we can see that both Rader and Ramirez are both sexual domination serial killers but they are drastically different from each other in the ways this is presented in their behaviour and mannerisms.
The next killer we look at is Gary Ridgway “The Green River Killer”, Ridgway is known as one of the most prolific serial killers in known history being convicted of 49 murders but that number is believed to be as high as 72 although this can’t be proven as even Ridgway was unaware of how many people he actually killed. Ridgway as Grande explains has the perfect cocktail of psychologically and environmental factors that made him so difficult to catch. He exhibited a lot of the key traits found in sexual domination serial killers but not strongly enough that he attracted attention and he was even interviewed/talk to by the police on more than one occasion and was released. Ridgway was also emotionally withdrawn which is atypical in serial killers even when he was arrested for trying to solicit an undercover police officer he had no reaction and seemed completely unphased by this. Ridgway was also atypical as he managed to marry 3 times and maintain his last marriage until after he was convicted and he also held down a job for decades which is another atypical factor for this kind of serial killer.
The next killer Grande looks at is Joel Rifkin, Joel Rifkin wasn’t someone I had heard of before but it seems that he admired Ridgway and subconsciously tried to emulate him in his style of killing and his victims as they were all prostitutes. However, Rifkin was sexual driven and this seemed to be his only motivation as he developed this sexual drive as a child and it was fostered through his relationships with prostitutes as he was unable to form normal relationships and found behaviours he found sexual satisfying in movies like Frenzy. Rifkin was also prolific being convicted on 9 murders although that number is believed to be 17. Rifkin’s behaviour was also very similar to Ridgway’s as they shared some common factors from the FFM.
The next killer is Danny Rolling “Gainesville Ripper”, and Rolling actually inspired Ghostface from the Scream movies. Rolling was an interesting case as he had a very abusive childhood and developed voyeuristic tendencies very young. He was also physically, emotionally and mentally abused by his father which lead to him turning to a life of crime because he was unable to hold down a job. When he began killing, Rolling quite became very sadistic as overkill was often seen and he enjoyed staging the bodies. However, there is a duality in Rolling as at time he couldn’t go through with rapes when he began thinking about the victims and during his trial he didn’t want to face the jury while they looked at the crime scenes photos indicting a certain amount of shame in his actions.
The next killer Grande looks at is Rodney Alcala “Dating Game Killer”, who was very unique among serial killers as he was very much in the public eye. Alcala is a very well known serial killer as he appeared on the show the Dating Game right in the middle of his active killing time frame. Alcala is also the first serial killer we have seen that sexually targeted and killed children as well as adults. He is also the most manipulative serial killer we have seen so far as he convinced several mental health professions to release him from a mental hospital and convinced parole officers to allow him to travel to New York after his release from prison where he went on to kill again. Alcala was also the killer that shows that officers of the law should rely on intuition and not dismiss it as the contestant from the Dating Game sensed something about Alcala that caused her to refuse the offer of his date and probably saved her life but it is something that several law officials and mental health professionals missed.
The final serial killer is James DeAngelo “Golden State Killer”, DeAngelo is interesting for a number of reason, not only is he the serial killer to be captured most recently in 2018 but he is the only one that held a job within law enforcement and possibly used the skills from that job in order to evade capture for so long. DeAngelo was also methodical and organised with a clear escalation of his crimes throughout his life starting first with burglaries, then rapes and finally murders. We can clearly see that DeAngelo lacked any empathy or remorse and delighted in psychologically torturing his male victims while sexually assaulting the female victims. However, the most interesting thing about this serial killers is if law enforcement had used DNA in a very creative way then they may have never caught the Golden State Killer.
In summary, Grande acknowledges that while personality theory is useful in allowing us to understand serial killers after they are caught, it wouldn’t be of any use in predicting who will become serial killers as by its design it would create a lot of false positive which would be less than useful to law enforcement and they are already useful and reasonably accurate profiling systems in place that are being used. Overall, I found The Psychology of Notorious Serial Killers: The Intersection of Personality Theory and the Darkest Minds of Our Time to be an interesting book looking at serial killers from a purely psychological perspective without being dry and bland likes its predecessors and I’d highly recommend it for anyone interested in serial killers or psychology.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from Edelweiss
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