The Evil Within - A Top Murder Squad Detective Reveals The Chilling True Stories of The World's Most Notorious Killers

Among others, I am very pleased to acknowledge the help and support of: Elisabeth Wetsch; The Crime Library; Paul B Kidd; Frances Farmer; Kathleen Ramsland; Mark Gado; Michael Newton: Rachael Bell; Marylyn Bardsley; David Lohr; James Card; Martin Strohmm; Alexander Gilbert; Patrick Bellamy; www.crimezzz.net; and the entire team at John Blake Publishing.

T
he first recorded murder was the killing of Abel by his brother Cain. Since that early time, men and women alike have continued to commit murder. Many of these murders have been committed in the most brutal and horrific ways imaginable, showing no respect for human life. Throughout my time as a murder squad detective, I have seen first-hand the wanton slayings and butcheries committed by both men and women with warped, depraved and sadistic minds. The serial killers I have documented here – among the world’s worst – all had the desire to maim, kill and mutilate their fellow men, women and children in the most callous and cold-blooded fashion imaginable. I hope that, like me, when you have become familiar with the victims in the chapters that follow, you will pause to reflect on the pain and suffering endured by all as they drew their last breath before succumbing to murder at the hands of despicable and cowardly monsters.

A question I am asked frequently is ‘What defines a serial killer?’ And what turns a normal human being into a killer who then progresses to become a serial killer? The term ‘serial killer’ was adopted by the FBI in the mid-1970s, following its investigation into a spate of killings by the same perpetrators. A
serial killer is loosely defined as someone who commits three or more murders at the same or different locations, usually coupled with an emotionally-significant lapse of time (a ‘cooling-off’ period) between each death. This time between each murder could be days, weeks, months or even years. Many convicted serial killers are proven psychopaths, suffering from personality disorders, but they are not always psychotic and to an outside observer may appear quite normal.

Serial killers are driven by a variety of psychological urges, but primarily by the desire for power and sexual motivations. They often have feelings of inadequacy and rejection by society. Many were both physically and sexually abused at an early age and their crimes in later years seek to compensate for this and provide them with a sense of potency and often revenge, by giving them a feeling of power, both at the time they commit their murders and afterwards. They also revel in the knowledge that their actions bring terror and fear to communities. This adds to the sense of power.

Serial killers often begin fantasising about murder during, or even before, adolescence. This fantasy grows with them and they daydream compulsively about domination, submission and murder, usually with very specific elements to the fantasy that will eventually be made apparent in real crimes. Others initially take to reading stories about or looking at photographs in magazines that feature sadistic acts such as rape, torture and murder. They will later feel compelled to act out in real life what they have seen and read. They usually prey on victims from the lower social classes, such as vagrants or prostitutes, in addition to the vulnerable – young children and elderly people.

Early signs of such tendencies are often displayed in childhood, and include fire-starting, (setting fire to things to gain attention) and cruelty to animals, commonly referred to as ‘zoo sadism’. Many children are cruel to animals, pulling the legs off spiders for example, but future serial killers often kill larger animals, such as dogs and cats, and frequently for solitary enjoyment rather than to impress peers. You will find this is a recurring theme in this book.

When apprehended, most serial killers will try to raise a defence of insanity and will plead not guilty on that basis, forcing the prosecution to prove that, at the time of committing the crimes, they were not suffering from a severe subnormality and knew the difference between right and wrong. With some serial killers, extensive premeditation combined with a lack of any obvious delusions or hallucinations that would hinder the defendant’s ability to evade detection after committing multiple murders makes such a defence easily disproved. However, this tactic does allow the introduction of evidence about the killer’s background that would normally be deemed inadmissible, for example a history of childhood abuse. It has been widely suggested that once a serial killer starts to kill they cannot stop.

With the modern forensic technology and DNA analysis now available to the police, more killers than ever before are being caught. Of course, any serial killer who kills on a regular basis is much more likely to be caught than one whose killings are less frequent.

There are four categories of serial killer: organised, disorganised, missionary and hedonistic. Some killers will show more than one type of characteristic, though usually one will dominate. Some killers descend from organised into disorganised behaviour as their killings continue. They will carry out careful and methodical murders at the start, but as their compulsion grows out of control and utterly dominates their lives, they become careless and impulsive.

Organised types plan their crimes methodically, usually abducting victims, killing them in one place and disposing of them in another. They will often lure the victims with ploys that appeal to their good nature. Others specifically target prostitutes, who are likely to go voluntarily with a serial killer posing as a customer. They are able to maintain a high degree of control over the crime scene and nowadays are usually forensically aware, knowing about the need to bury a body deep, or weighting it down to sink it in a river. They also follow their crimes in the media carefully
and often take pride in their actions. The organised killer is usually socially adequate and has friends and lovers, perhaps even a wife and children. He is the type who, when captured, is most likely to be described by acquaintances as ‘a really nice guy’ who ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’. Some serial killers go to lengths to make their crimes difficult to discover, such as falsifying suicide notes, or setting up innocent people to take the blame for their crimes.

Disorganised types tend, as a rule, to commit their crimes impulsively. They will murder when the opportunity arises, rarely disposing of the body but instead simply leaving it at the scene. They usually attack their victims without warning and will typically perform whatever they feel compelled to do once they have killed, for example necrophilia, mutilation and cannibalism. They rarely bother to cover their tracks but may still evade capture for some time because of a level of cunning that compels them to keep on the move. They are often socially inadequate with few friends, usually have a history of mental problems and are regarded by family and acquaintances as eccentric or even weird. They have little insight into the crimes they commit and they may even block out memories of the killings.

Missionary killers believe that their acts are justified on the basis that they are getting rid of a certain type of person, often prostitutes or members of a certain ethnic group, and are therefore doing society a favour. Missionary killers differ from other types of serial killer in that their motive is generally non-sexual.

A hedonistic killer kills for the sheer pleasure of it, although the particular aspect they enjoy will vary. Some may enjoy the ‘chase’ of hunting down a victim more than anything, while others may be primarily motivated by the act of torturing and abusing the victim while they are still alive. Others will kill their victims quickly and then in indulge in necrophilia with or cannibalism of the body. Usually there is a strong sexual aspect to the crime, even if it may not be immediately obvious; some killers obtain a surge of excitement that is not necessarily sexual.

So where does this urge to kill come from, and why is it so
powerful? If we were all to experience this urge, would we be able to resist it? Is it genetic, hormonal, biological or culturally conditioned? Do serial killers have any control over their desires? We all experience rage and inappropriate sexual instincts, yet most of us have some sort of internal ‘cage’ that keeps our inner monsters locked up. Call it morality or social programming; these internal blockades have long since crumbled in psychopathic killers. Not only have they let loose the monster within, they become virtual slaves to its beastly appetites and will kill and mutilate until they are finally caught and called to account for their crimes in a court of law. The phenomenon of serial murder is popularly regarded as a modern one but it can be traced back through history with some degree of accuracy.

Liu Pengli of China, cousin of Emperor Jing, was made king of Jidong in the sixth year of the middle period of Jing’s reign, 144 BC. It was written that he would ‘go out on marauding expeditions with 20 or 30 slaves or young men who were in hiding from the law, murdering people and seizing their belongings for sheer sport’. Although many of his subjects knew about these murders, they were afraid to go out of their houses at night; it was not until the 29th year of his reign that the son of one of his victims finally sent a report to the emperor. It was then discovered that he had murdered at least 100 people. The officials of the court requested that Liu Pengli be executed; however, the emperor could not bear to have his own cousin killed; Liu Pengli was instead made a commoner and banished.

In the fifteenth century, one of the wealthiest men in France, Gilles de Rais, is said to have abducted, raped and killed at least 100 young boys whom he brought to his castle as pages. The Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory was arrested in 1610 and subsequently charged with torturing and butchering as many as 600 young girls. Like Liu Pengli, de Rais and Báthory were rich and powerful; therefore, although their crimes were known in their areas, they were not brought to justice for a long time. Chronicles of the times dealt largely with the affairs of the
powerful; moreover, there was a lack of established police forces, at least in Europe, during those centuries. Therefore, there may have been many other classical or medieval serial killers who were either not identified or publicised.

Thug Behram, a gang leader of the Indian Thuggee cult of assassins, has frequently been described as the world’s most prolific serial killer. According to numerous sources, he was believed to have murdered 931 victims by strangulation by means of a ceremonial cloth or
rumal
, which in Hindi means ‘handkerchief’, used by his cult between 1790 and 1830, thus holding the record for the most murders directly committed by a single person in history. In total, the Thugs as a whole were responsible for approximately two million deaths, according to Guinness World Records. The notoriety of the Thugs eventually led to the word ‘thug’ entering the English language as a term for ruffians, miscreants and people who behave in an aggressive manner towards others. Recent scholarship has cast doubt on the Thuggee cult and has suggested that the British Empire rulers in India were confused by the vernacular use of the term by Indians and may also have used fear of such a cult to justify their colonial rule.

Some historical criminologists have suggested that there may have been serial murders throughout history, but specific cases were not adequately recorded. Some sources suggest that medieval serial killers inspired legends such as those concerning werewolves and vampires.