PROFILING A KILLER
Professor Glenn Wilson, Gresham College, London
THE REAL CRACKERS
Psychologists like Fitz in Cracker
excite public imagination with
their uncanny insights and
intuition.
Modern profilers are more prosaic
and scientific – working from
cold logic and experience collated
from research findings.
Nothing magical, mystical or
“psychic” about criminal
profiling.
JACK THE RIPPER
Case is famous because it
occurred at the beginnings of
tabloid journalism and was
never solved.
Speculation about perverted
sexual motives of Jack would
not have narrowed the search.
Known details of choice of
victims, times and places of
attacks could have.
Suggestion that Jack used
professional skill in removing
organs is an early instance of
profiling.
TYPICAL SERIAL KILLERS
1. By definition, kill 3+ with downtime (thus distinguished
from spree killers).
2. Usually, young (20-40) males. May seem ordinary to
neighbours/colleagues.
3. Move house frequently (distancing themselves from
crimes?)
4. Unstable relationships and employment (itinerant jobs
like bouncer, driver, wheel-clamper).
5. Often solitary (“loners”) but not always.
6. Not usually mad but often psychopathic (irresponsible,
cruel, liars, lacking empathy).
7. Background of assault, trespass & burglary
CHARM AND INTELLIGENCE?
Serial killers are often said to be
charming and intelligent. Only
likely to be true for famous,
successful serial killers (like Ted
Bundy, The Campus Killer, and
Gary Ridgway, The Green River
Killer) who evade capture for a
long time. Those less bright
make mistakes and are caught
early (usually before achieving
3+ victims).
Not necessarily white (also down
to selective reporting of
eloquent, middle-class killers?)
COMMON MOTIVES
1. Driven by deviant sexual fantasy and passions like
lust, empowerment or revenge.
2. May enjoy pain/suffering of victim. Kill strangers
with contact methods (beating, knives,
strangulation).
3. Overkill (e.g. multiple stabbing, mutilation)
suggests pleasure in act.
4. Some take souvenirs/trophies (clothing, jewellery,
body parts) to help relive crimes.
5. Some are thrill-seekers who enjoy media attention
and the “game” of evading capture.
6. Some claim to be mission-oriented (e.g. ridding
society of immoral people like prostitutes). This is
likely to be “rationalisation”.
M.O. vs SIGNATURES
Modus Operandi refers to common
aspects of the criminals activities
that might change according to
circumstances (e.g., means of
access, availability of weapons).
Signatures are unique and stable,
revealing psychological needs (e.g.,
ritual aspects of crime, nicknames,
posing the corpse, inserting objects).
Latter more useful for linkage
analysis – determining if same
individual is responsible for various
crimes.
THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER
The signature of the Yorkshire
Ripper was a wound to the
stomach gauged with a
screwdriver after hitting victim
on head with a hammer.
Apparently reconstructing an
exhibit from a waxwork museum
that excited him when young (a
series of female torsos with
windows in their belly depicting
“the nine stages of pregnancy”).
Sutcliffe claimed to be inspired
by God to rid the world of
prostitutes but was probably more
driven by lust and detestation of
women.
ORGANISED vs DISORGANISED TYPES
Organised :
1.Above average 1Q.
2. Plan carefully, abducting and killing in one place and disposing of body in
another.
3. Operate in daytime.
4. Engage victims in conversation and lure them with clever ploys.
5. Control the crime scene so as to leave few clues.
6. Socially adequate, with friends, lovers, wives.
7. Knowledge of forensics; follow case in media.
Disorganised :
1. Below average IQ.
2. Impulsive, using any weapon to hand; no attempt to hide body.
3. Operate by night.
4. Depersonalise the victim.
5. Leave chaotic crime scene.
6. Socially inadequate; often history of mental illness.
7. No interest in police work or media.
SUBTYPES
Holmes & Holmes (1998) propose five subtypes:
1. Visionary – psychotic, acting on voices from God or the
Devil. Killing seen as “job to be done”.
2. Mission – compelled to rid the world of some undesirable
group.
3. Lust – fantasy driven (may include necrophilia or
cannibalism).
4. Thrill-seekers – seek adrenalin rush of hunt & kill. Torture
victim but lose interest after they are dead.
5. Power/control – seek total domination over victim. Like to
extend the process for a long time.
Much overlap among these categories and empirical
support lacking.
RADEX MODEL OF KILLER’S ACTIONS
(Canter & Youngs, 2009)
THE SUFFOLK STRANGLER
Steve Wright is a typical serial killer.
Strangled 5 prostitutes in Ipswich
(2006) probably because he found it
sexually exciting and empowering.
Prostitutes targeted because they were
vulnerable and already sexualised.
Background of unstable employment
and relationships, gambling, drinking,
theft and two suicide attempts. Never
settled long in any one place. Age 48
when arrested but may have killed
earlier . Several unsolved murders
around Norwich, where Wright had
lived, bear his trademarks (prostitutes
abducted, strangled, left in water-filled
ditches).
ATYPICAL KILLERS
Not all serial killers are men targeting
young women. Those targeting men
are usually homosexual themselves
(Dennis Nilsen; Jeffrey Dahmer).
Like usually kills like with respect to
race also.
Some target older women (e.g.,
Delroy Grant, The Night Stalker).
Gerontophilic? Or seeking “revenge
on mother”?
Yorkshire doctor Harold Shipman,
“euthanised” 218 elderly women,
apparently re-enacting his mother’s
death by morphine (witnessed at age
17).
FEMALE SERIAL KILLERS
Tend to use poison, kill those close to them
and profit or “mercy” is the motive.
Black Widows – kill husbands for inheritance
or insurance.
Angels of Death – often health professionals
who kill “because they can” or out of a sense
of mercy.
Folie a deux – women who engage in lust
killing usually do so in tandem with a male
partner (e.g. Myra Hindley, Rose West).
Mary Ann Cotton: Durham woman who, in
the 19th century, killed 21 people, including
her mother, 3 husbands, 10 of her own
children, 5 stepchildren, a lover and her best
friend.
GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILING
Originated with study of cholera
outbreak in Soho, 1854. Dr John
Snow traced it to a well in
Broadwick St (theorised that
contaminated water was
responsible for transmission).
Works on principle that criminal
lives within the range of crimes
(distance decay) but may avoid
own doorstep (buffer zone).
Several programmes developed
(e.g., David Canter’s Dragnet).
Other factors need to be
considered, such as
access/transport limitations.
GEOPROFILE FOR JACK THE RIPPER
(after Wesley English)
PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
Some criminals seem to
have a separation line
between their home base
and their operating area
(so as not to soil their
own doorstep).
For Jack the Ripper this
could have been the
Whitechapel Rd.
For Levi Bellfield it may
have been the M4.
MARAUDERS VS COMMUTERS
Marauder
Static, commits crime in a confined area. Operates
and lives within an awareness/comfort space.
Commuter
Mobile, commits crimes over
large areas, away from home.
RANGE OF THE NIGHT STALKER
Delroy Grant
assaulted, raped and
burgled countless
elderly women SE
London/Kent over a
long period. Because
focus was Shirley
area it was thought
he may have been a
Bethlem Hospital
patient. Actually
lived in Brockley but
stalked victims in
leafier suburbs to the
south.
DISPOSAL SITES
Bodies may be transported
to remote, wooded places
for concealment or to
deflect attention from
killer’s home.
Direction may change
when vigilance is raised,
but distance often similar,
yielding a radial pattern
around the home base.
Steve Wright moved in
different directions but
centred on Ipswich.
HOME COMFORTS
Fred and Rose West were
ultimate marauders, taking
their victims home to
torture and kill. Their own
children also suffered. This
is the opposite of the
“buffer zone” concept.
The Wests also typify the
folie a deux that sometimes
occurs when couples
support each other in
deviant fantasies (c.f.,
Brady & Hindley).
THE RAILWAY RAPIST
An early instance in which profiling
helped find a killer was that of John
Duffy.
In the 1980s there were a series of rapes
and murders around North London
railways. David Canter helped police
draw up a profile: living in centre of
crime zone, mid- to late-20s, righthanded, blood type A, probably married,
criminal record including violence, semiskilled, weekend work, knowledge of
railways.
Duffy had been 1505th on a list of
suspects but quickly promoted and
caught. He lived in Kilburn, was in his
20s, right-handed, Type A, separated
from his wife (whom he had raped at
gunpoint) and a railway worker.
“THE MARDI GRA EXPERIENCE”
The Mardi Gra Bomber (self-styled) targeted
Barclays Banks around London in an attempt
at extortion.
Pattern at attacks was in the vicinity of
underground stations on lines running NW
from Chiswick (hence supposed he lived
there and travelled by tube). He then switched
attacks to Sainsbury’s stores in SE London
(not served by tube). Although intended to
confuse police regarding his home base all it
did was show they were wrong about his
mode of transport.
Eventually caught being driven by his brother
and indeed lived in Chiswick.
A PROFILE IS NOT EVIDENCE
Recent excitement about psychological
profiling has led to inappropriate use as
evidence in murder trials.
Famous case is Colin Stagg, charged
with the Wimbledon Common murder
largely because he fitted a preconceived
profile of the killer. After his acquittal
the real murderer was found by DNA.
Barry George, a fantasist loner who
lived near Jill Dando, was initially
convicted of her murder despite minimal
forensic evidence (overturned on
appeal). Now thought she was killed by
a Serbian hit man avenging her support
of Kosovo and the NATO bombing of a
Belgrade TV station three days earlier.