Wessel Ebersohn's Blog, page 15

Criminals have people killed

The leaders of profitable criminal empires kill or have people killed for money, but also to exercise their power even when there is no money involved. They kill when they are disobeyed, when an opposing faction strays into what they perceive to be their territory, when they feel insulted and for many other reasons of which money is only an incidental aspect.

At least, that type of killer is far more predictable than the compulsive killer.

Rosa on killers

Power, he says. Well occasionally he might get something right. Even Rosa knows that. I asked her if she agreed that some killers murder because they love the exercise of power.

She said, “Of course, Yudel. It’s obvious. Think of the mafia bosses, think of Pablo Escobar.”

So I thought about them and yes, it is obvious.

Wessel Ebersohn’s sixty-fifth rule of thriller writing

Never forget the power element of the killer’s motive. Killing someone else is the ultimate exercise of power.

Thoughts on serial killers

Do not look too hard for the causes of the actions of serial killers. Interested people have pointed out hardships in youth, a parent who disappeared at a crucial time, a friend who committed an act of betrayal, even a genetic abnormality. But then, try searching among other people for the same sort of incidents and conditions and you will find hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people who suffered in very much the same way. And none of them became serial killers. 

It is possible that at some time in the future we will discover the root causes of the compulsive killer’s personality. Right now, we are not even scratching the surface.

Yudel Gordon on Bundy

I see that Ebersohn has mentioned Bundy. If you’re reading this, never take his remarks too seriously. He makes it up as he goes along. Of course I never met Bundy, having always worked on this side of the Atlantic. But some of the facts are plain. Perhaps the most interesting is how for years he worked on a help line for people in trouble. He talked sense into people who were contemplating suicide, perhaps even preventing some from taking their own lives. And yet he more than made up for that by killing a great many.

Wessel Ebersohn’s sixty-fourth rule of thriller writing

It is possible to become too deeply mired in the psychological stuff around cause and effect when dealing with serial killers. One of the last things Ted Bundy said to anyone was to tell a warder that “I enjoyed it.” It can be that simple.

Wessel Ebersohn's sixty-fourth rule of thriller writing

It is possible to become too deeply mired in the psychological stuff around cause and effect when dealing with serial killers. One of the last things Ted Bundy said to anyone was to tell a warder that "I enjoyed it." It can be that simple.

Prisons are my life

Prisons. They have been my life. I'm not young any more and when I look back at the decades spent in prisons I wonder if I could not have spent all that time in some other field. Could I have done more for my fellow humans if I had been a surgeon or a civil engineer or a businessman, or even a writer – God help me?

Maybe in all of those fields I would have been a more useful human being. On the other hand, maybe not.

The truth is that crime and criminals, the crass and the convicted: they have always fascinated me more than other people do. Whether I could have served people better in some other field, never came into my original decision to enter the prison service.

God help me, but I love prisons and working among the men in them. And I always will.

It’s okay that he dropped me

So I finally read The Classifier. You have to understand that I wouldn’t have, except that Ebersohn dropped me as his subject matter to write it.

When I finished, Rosa asked me what I thought.

I didn’t answer at first, but she kept on at me. Eventually I had to say something. “It’s okay,” I said.

“The book’s okay? Is that what you’re saying?”

“No. I’m saying it’s okay that he dropped me to write it.”

“I see,” she said.

It's okay that he dropped me

So I finally read The Classifier. You have to understand that I wouldn't have, except that Ebersohn dropped me as his subject matter to write it.

When I finished, Rosa asked me what I thought.

I didn't answer at first, but she kept on at me. Eventually I had to say something. "It's okay," I said.

"The book's okay? Is that what you're saying?"

"No. I'm saying it's okay that he dropped me to write it."

"I see," she said.