The Killer Across the Table

by John E. Douglas

By the time we had completed our initial round of interviews, we knew what type of person could do such a thing, and three words seemed to characterize the motivations of every one of our offenders: Manipulation. Domination. Control.

They are all predators, and all grew up without forming trusting bonds with other human beings during their formative years. And they are all prime exhibits in one of the central debates of behavioral science: nature versus nurture, whether killers are born or made.

Over lunch one day, Mark Olshaker asked retired LAPD detective Tom Lange when he came to his own conclusion that O. J. Simpson was the prime suspect in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her waiter friend Ronald Goldman in 1994. Lange replied that though O.J. was cordial and cooperative during the interview, he asked no questions regarding the details of Nicole’s death, whether or how much she had suffered, whether the police had any idea who had done it—all of the normal things any close survivor would instinctively want to know.

But a mental disorder, in and of itself, does not mean the perpetrator is insane, which is a legal, rather than a medical, term that has to do with culpability.

But I always start from the same premise, one that I taught throughout my years with the FBI: Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

So humans are the opposite of markets...

One of the hallmarks of narcissistic, borderline, and sociopathic personalities is the unwillingness to assume personal responsibility for anything. It is always someone else’s fault.

In our research, there is a strong correlation between domineering mothers and men who grow up to be predators. Though the vast majority of those with such mothers do not grow up to be offenders, of those who do, the domineering mother constitutes a significant influencing factor.

One of the things that is interesting and pretty consistent among serial predators is that two emotional concepts are constantly warring within them. One is a feeling of grandiosity and entitlement. The other is a deep-seated and pervasive sense of inferiority and inadequacy.

I found it interesting that he could practically brag about what he had done to human beings but was too ashamed of mistreating small animals to admit it.

What this statement actually demonstrates is the one universal among all serial killers and violent predators: other people don’t matter, they aren’t real, and they don’t have any rights.

Predators may look and sound and often act like we do, but they don’t think like we do. Their logical process is completely different.

Third, Kondro reaffirms for us that a casually violent personality—one capable of ripping a phone out of the wall, breaking household objects in a fit of rage, or leading a domestic partner to seek a restraining order—is by definition capable of a heightened or intensified level of violence. Because as we say, “Behavior reflects personality.” And that awareness just might save a life.

A number of killers, subjected to imaging studies or as a result of postmortem examination, have been found to have brain lesions of various sorts.

The science is pretty convincing that male homosexuality is hardwired in an individual, probably before birth.

Inevitably the question eventually comes down to moral agency against inborn determinism. And that leads to a single word: choice.

“Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives into conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining.”