The Killer Across the Table

by John E. Douglas

My goal was to turn on the “DVD” in McGowan’s brain that had recorded the homicide.

The anger begins to build, and these types of feelings don’t just burn out; quite the contrary, they get worse as these individuals accept the fact that they are not going to meet their own goals and expectations.

It can’t be done by staying quiet. It can’t be done by thinking that somebody else is going to do it. You just have to do it.”

“I don’t know what I would say to her. What do you say to somebody that, you know, goes out and kills children? There is really nothing to say. I mean, the act speaks for itself.”

Well, in many cases there is an aberrant piece that either determines or influences behavior. But by the time some individual acts on his predatory urges, it is usually so completely assimilated into his entire personality that you can’t simply take it out and replace it as you can a defective mechanical part. That is why the concept of rehabilitation is so problematic for violent offenders.

whatever was wrong with him was already baked in.