American Evil

Eric Cullen

Description

American Evil looks into the 'sordid' world of serial killers, their calculating methods and distorted thinking, based around the author's first-hand experience working with killers inside prisons.Dr Eric Cullen describes how he was 'so profoundly moved' by his inescapable conclusions about how serial killers are 'made' that he felt compelled to set out his findings. A critic of the serial killer growth industry, unhealthy interest and ill-informed comment he sets the record straight. Serial killers are made not born.But his more central polemic is that serial killers are one of several malign human by-products of a dysfunctional, unduly permissive society, overwhelmingly American, brought about by modern-day culture and lax moral standards (as also reflected in other countries to the extent that they pursue a comparable way of life).

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• True crime
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Waterside Press
• Date de parution: 30 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781910979976
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

American Evil
The Psychology of Serial Killers
Dr Eric Cullen
Copyright and publication details
American Evil: The Psychology of Serial Killers
Dr Eric Cullen
ISBN 978-1-909976-79-5 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-910979-97-6 (Epub ebook)
ISBN 978-1-910979-98-3 (Adobe ebook)
Copyright © 2020 This work is the copyright of Dr Eric Cullen. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by him in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard copy, digitally or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.
Cover design © 2020 Waterside Press by www.gibgob.com
Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 6QH . Tel: [phone]; [e-mail] ; www.gardners.com
North American distribution Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. Tel: [phone]; [e-mail]
Cataloguing-In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
Ebook American Evil: The Psychology of Serial Killers is available as an ebook and to subscribers of Ebrary, Ebsco, Myilibrary and Dawsonera.
Published 2020 by
Waterside Press Ltd
Sherfield Gables, Sherfield on Loddon,
Hook, Hampshire, RG27 0JG.
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
Table of Contents
Publisher’s note viii
Acknowledgements ix
About the author x
Introduction xi
The Perfect Storm xi The Demographics of Death 15
First principle 15
How serial killers are made 16
Serial killer facts 17
Some basic statistics 18
Family abuse and fragmentation 19
Mental, physical and emotional isolation and abuse 21
A culture of violence 23
Violence as entertainment 23
Guns 24
Whatever happened to right and wrong? 25
Where does a conscience come from? 26
Pervasive pornography 27
Marginalisation 29
Alienation 30
Serial killers as celebrities 30
Addiction to drugs and alcohol 31
The biggest prison industry in the world 32
Disconnected and, at times, incompetent, police 33
Summary 33
The flip side 35 Serial Killers’ Personalities 39
How it begins 39
Infancy and childhood 41
Dissociative identity disorder 42
Immorality 45
Rejection 46
Psychopathy 46
The trigger event 48
Psychological theories 51
The psychology of killing by strangulation 51
Diminished responsibility 52
Some personal characteristics shared by many serial killers 55
Summary 58 John Wayne Gacy: Gay Killer Clown 61
When being queer was dangerous. 62
Positive and negative traits 64
Significant events 65
An orgy of killings … and missed opportunities 68
In conclusion 70 Israel Keyes: Thrill Killer 75
Keyes’ suicide “poem” 76
Crucial triggers 79
How did Keyes become this monster? 81
Untypical mistakes 83
Motive: “Why not?” 84 Samuel Little: The Worst American Serial Killer 89
Little’s story 91
From Samuel Little’s own mouth 93
No conventional conscience 95
Psychology of Samuel Little 96 Robert Black: The Depraved 101
Childhood 101
An “isolated incident” 104
Escalating offending and missed opportunities 104
Black’s psychology 106
Rationalisation 108 Michael Bruce Ross: Feeling More Real 111
Formative years and events 111
Escalation and returning drives 113
Progression to serial offending 114
This serial killer’s thinking and psychology 115
Excuses, distortion and false compassion 117
Killing as a logical next step 122
In conclusion 123 Levi Bellfield: Hiding in Plain Sight 127
Childhood and youth 128
Impact of early experiences 129
Significant factors and signals 130
Staging posts and missed opportunities 132
Psychology 133 Aileen Wournos: A Prostitute’s Revenge 137
Love and betrayal 139
Seven victims 140
Imprisonment 141
A cultural post-mortem 142
Popular culture 143 Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka: A Couple in Canada 147
Bernardo’s formative influences 148
Karla Homolka 149
Attempts to arrest and prosecute 153
Cynical exploitation 154
The psychology of Bernardo and Homolka 155 Stephen Griffiths: The Crossbow Cannibal 159
An unusual killer 159
Upbringing and progression to violent offending 160
University and more violent behaviour 162
Ven Pariah “Bloodbath Artist” 165 Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer 169
Ridgeway's upbringing 169
Sexual obsession and promiscuity 170
Psychology of a serial killer 172 Ted Bundy: For the Last Time 177
Why is Bundy so popular? 177
“Bundymania” 178
Commercialisation 179
The psychology of Ted Bundy: “poster boy” 180 Conclusions 183
Human nature 183
Factors to emphasise 184
What can be done to address the fact of American serial killing? 185
Humanism and secular morality 186
Laws against extreme, violent pornography 187
A nationally integrated police computer system for identifying possible serial killing patterns and monitoring them 188
Introduction of new laws addressing parental abuse 189
Introduction of nationally funded courses in social morality 190
And, finally, introduction of laws limiting the possession of guns, and a national obligation to hand in existing guns in private ownership 191
In summary 192
Selected References 193
Index 195
Publisher’s note
The text, views and opinions in this book are those of the author entirely and not necessarily shared by the publisher. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure factual accuracy, readers should draw their own conclusions concerning the possibility of alternative accounts, descriptions, points of view, interpretations, use of terminology or explanations.
Acknowledgements
There are two people I must thank in particular. Without them, this book wouldn’t have been written.
The first is Professor David Wilson. David is a charming and persuasive man and through his TV work one of the UK’s best-known criminologists. Due to his exhortations, I made three series on serial killers for Monster Films which met with some success and gave me the foundations for this book.
The second person is David Howard, the Director/Producer of Monster Films. David is a former barrister, and now filmmaker, a proud Welshman. Following the three TV series by Monster Films mentioned above, I offered an extended monologue to camera on my trenchant views about America’s culpability for serial killing. He suggested I write a book and get it off my chest. This is it. Thank you, David.
My publisher, Bryan Gibson, also a former barrister, has been invaluable in patiently and expertly transforming my sprawling and clearly imperfect manuscript into, well, the best he could. Waterside Press, his publishing house, frequently publishes academic works. Not a description that fits neatly on this one but I have tried to give some sources for my views and included Selected References at the end. So, I am doubly indebted to him for publishing it.
Eric Cullen
June 2020
About the author
Dr Eric Cullen was born in Kentucky, USA. After immigrating to England he became a British citizen and worked in borstals and other penal establishments, including Grendon Underwood (the UK’s ground-breaking therapeutic community (TC) prison). Later, he worked in the private sector, notably as lead consultant for Premier Prisons Ltd in their successful bid to build and run a new 200-bed TC for offenders at Dovegate Prison in Staffordshire which opened in 2001.
He has served as a magistrate, been a government advisor and written widely on related themes of murder, life imprisonment, treating personality disordered offenders, and TCs. He contributed to three acclaimed TV series including Voice of a Serial Killer, Voice of a Killer (both CBS Reality) and Making a Monster (Sky Crime + Investigation).
He lives with his wife in Buckinghamshire.
Introduction
The Perfect Storm
I wrote this book because I was drawn into the sordid and terrible world of serial killers when I was invited to be a consultant to a television series entitled The Voice of a Serial Killer . I have also worked with killers, including serial killers, for over 20 years in my role as a prison psychologist and been an advisor to government as described overleaf on how to treat dangerous personality disordered offenders. Since then, I’ve contributed to three TV series and have, reluctantly, learned a great deal more about serial killing. What I’ve read has left me so profoundly moved by inescapable conclusions about how serial killers are made that I have written this book about my thoughts, findings and conclusions.
Serial killers, and the programmes, films and books about them, are a growth industry, a crowded field. It seems the public, or a sizeable section of it, find the subject morbidly fascinating. My hope is to add to the understanding of this phenomenon rather than prurience.
My main purpose is to put forward the argument that serial killers are one of several malign human by-products of a dysfunctional modern permissive society; and to show that the overwhelming majority of serial killers are the result of how significant numbers of Americans choose to live their lives. To do so I have set-out what I see as the causative elements in American modern life that lead to the creation of serial killers.
Before doing so I should outline briefly my professional experience which I believe qualifies me to speak as I do. In my career, I spent 22 years as a prison psychologist directly involved with treating offenders. I was Head of Psychology at HM Prison Grendon Underwood for nearly ten years. Grendon is a therapeutic community (TC) secure prison for the treatment of severe personality disordered offenders. Most of the prison population of Grendon are murderers. I was directly responsible for the assessment, treatment and evaluation