My life among the serial killers Inside the minds of the world's most notorious murderers

Helen Morrison, 1942-

Book - 2004

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Subjects
Published
New York : William Morrow c2004.
Language
English
Main Author
Helen Morrison, 1942- (-)
Other Authors
Harold Goldberg (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
276 p. : ill
ISBN
9780060524081
9780060524074
  • Author's Note
  • Introduction
  • 1. Baby-Faced Richard Macek
  • 2. Dangerous Terrain: Hypnotizing a Serial Killer
  • 3. Breaking Through Macek's Mind
  • 4. Ed Gein and the History of Serial Killers
  • 5. John Wayne Gacy
  • 6. The Gacy Interviews
  • 7. Taking the Stand at the Gacy Trial
  • 8. The Yorkshire Ripper and Wayne Williams
  • 9. Bobby Joe Long's Letters and Dreams
  • 10. Serial Killers and Their Families
  • 11. The Sadism of Robert Berdella
  • 12. The Trigger: Michael Lee Lockhart
  • 13. Rosemary West and Partners in Serial Crime
  • 14. The International Phenomenon: Child Killer in Rio
  • 15. DNA and the Green River Killer
  • Epilogue: Where Do We Go from Here?
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Booklist Review

In her role as consultant to a variety of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, forensic psychiatrist Morrison has interviewed and studied such notables as John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein, and Wayne Williams, along with many other, less well known but equally horrific serial killers. Her memoir is not what you might call pleasant reading; it is relentlessly unpleasant, as a matter of fact, as Morrison describes these men and women and their crimes in precise, often graphic detail. At the same time, however, it is a profoundly enlightening book. Morrison provides startling insights into what factors breed serial killers, and she avoids the broad generalizations that make other books of the topic seem slick and superficial. Still, Morrison recognizes that experts have only the sketchiest understanding of what makes a person commit murder repeatedly. This is an absorbing, disturbing book that makes it clear just how much we have yet to learn. --David Pitt Copyright 2004 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

With serial killers a hot topic in the wake of Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning performance in Monster, forensic psychiatrist Morrison's memoir of working with more than 80 serial killers couldn't be more timely. The author's countless hours of interviews with John Wayne Gacy and others of his ilk have led her to a controversial conclusion: she believes there's a serial killer gene ("He is a serial killer when he is a fetus, even as soon as sperm meets egg to create the genes of a new person"). Unfortunately, she offers little in support of this deterministic view, and she will offend some readers with an implied exoneration of criminals whom she describes as "completely unaware of the process leading up to murder," despite the detailed planning and preparation displayed by many of them. And even readers who are willing to have an open mind about Morrison's theories are likely to find some aspects of her report a little creepy, as when she discusses a treasured trophy she keeps in her basement: "I place John Gacy's brain back in the box because my kids are calling for me upstairs." Agent, Chris Calhoun at Sterling Lord. (On sale May 4) Forecasts: 60 Minutes II has committed to a profile with Dr. Morrison to air May 5. The author will appear live on the Today show on May 6, with more media appearances in the days to follow, including with Paula Zahn on CNN and Chuck Scarborough on MSNBC. Expect an initial surge in sales. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Forensic psychiatrist Morrison has probed the minds of more than 80 murderous psychopaths in an attempt to find out why serial killers kill. In addition to subjects from her three decades of profiling work, she presents "psychological autopsies" of earlier killers from history. In short, Morrison concludes that serial killers lack the essential core of human relatedness-the ability to become close to others. She has worked with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies and has consequently handled some bloody and gruesome criminal cases. Here, she shares many interesting and sometimes disturbing stories from her profiling work: for example, immediately after she returned from her honeymoon, a Christmas card was delivered to her unlisted address from John Wayne Gacy, an infamous psychopath who killed 33 young males. The reportedly toned-down version of her research on Robert Berdella, a particularly savage killer, is enough to make the average reader cringe. This highly recommended book will make an excellent addition to any collection in criminal justice and especially in the specialized area of serial killers.-Tim Delaney, SUNY at Oswego (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A forensic psychiatrist takes well-turned clinical forays into the heads of multiple murderers, with additional long-distance thoughts on their peers in foreign countries and in the past. Aided by veteran journalist Goldberg, Morrison shapes her experiences as a memoir and lets her prose express both analytical detachment and utter fascination. Nonetheless, she states, "I still could feel sickened about the nature of their crimes, no matter how detached I tried to be." And these crimes are particularly dreadful. Morrison has spent 25 years trying to uncover some pattern to serial-killer behavior, a painstaking process of trying to understand why they do what they do by interviewing as many serial killers as she can get access to. Slowly the material accrues. John Wayne Gacy, she found, had the emotional makeup of an infant and "felt he was drowning when subjected to emotional complexity." Robert Berdella displayed a total lack of empathy; he "couldn't picture what the meaning of torture or even death is." Serial killers typically show no social or psychological attachments, yet the author finds a terrible chemistry that suggests "serial murder at first sight exists and thrives much like love at first sight." Killers had a "sudden urgency to get a victim. It wasn't just a need; it was a drive, a compulsion"--an addiction of sorts. These discoveries pointed Morrison toward a genetic explanation of serial killing: something, she believes, causes an imbalance of the neurochemicals that trigger emotions and lead to actions. "I am firmly convinced there is something in the genes that leads a person to become a serial killer," she asserts. "In other words, he is a killer before he is born." Morrison has not been able to prove this theory conclusively, since her attempts to run tests on serial killers have, understandably, run into issues of free will. A scary piece of work, with even scarier implications. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

My Life Among the Serial Killers Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers Chapter One Baby-Faced Richard Macek In March of 1977, the old road to Waupun, Wisconsin, was somehow eerie and foreboding, not simply rural but isolated in the kind of way that makes you watch your back. About twenty minutes outside of Madison, the colorful, welcoming signs for homey diners and Wisconsin cheddar cheese vanished, and the whole world seemed devoid of life. The sleepy fields along the way were still brown, not yet tinged with green, and there was an uncanny quiet, made heavier by the gray, chilly day. To be quite honest, I was nervous. I was a young doctor about to step into a world brimming with horrible crime and serial murder. It was a world full of macho, hard-drinking law enforcement officials who'd seen too much, and I wondered if I would be accepted or even tolerated not only as a professional, but also because I was a woman. Occasionally, I gripped the steering wheel too hard, as if driving straight and steady on the highway would steady my thoughts. I glanced at myself in the rearview mirror, to make sure the anxiety didn't show. It was important that I appear calm and composed. I was no stranger to challenges, to tough times. As a child living in a small town near Pittsburgh, I never knew my real parents. It's not that I didn't yearn to find out. It just wasn't part of the deal. My parents weren't that kind. Sure, six other children and I had a roof over our heads, and food, but when it came to the real security that love can provide, well, it simply wasn't present. It sometimes seemed that the reason six others and I were children to these people was due to factors not understood, even now. Our lives as children were often unremittingly dark, and we were very alone in the world the parents defined. But in one way I was ahead of the game. I discovered an early passion for what I wanted to do. At the age of eleven, I watched as eightyear-old Beth, one of my favorite siblings, came down with scarlet fever. The rash of scarlet fever usually looks like a bad sunburn with unsightly but tiny bumps. I often felt like a mother to the rest of my siblings, so as her condition worsened, her chills and shakes, high fever, and vomiting had me worried. As she hallucinated, I was sure she was near death. I became frightened, full of the kind of all-encompassing terror that only children can feel. But when a doctor came to the house to treat her, she soon began to recover. In my young mind, I thought the doctor was a miracle worker. Amazed, I vowed right then to become a doctor. I was working by age twelve to bring in money, and I believed that if I worked harder and longer than anyone else, I could accomplish anything to which I set my mind -- including becoming a doctor. It didn't matter if I had to deliver newspapers or if I worked as a waitress or a clerk in a grocery store to do it. Sometimes, I stood restless at the outskirts of our small town. And I imagined myself somewhere else, traveling to the more exotic places I saw in magazines or heard about on the radio. I could get out. I would get out. I had to. As I drove, I kept thinking about what the FBI agent had asked me. "Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Special Agent Louis Tomaselli obviously had seen a lot in the course of his job, but the gruesome nature of the eight-by-ten black-and-white photographs he showed me had him mystified and concerned. Tomaselli was smooth talking, dark haired, and wiry. He had this way of talking with his hands. Careful but darkly animated, his hands moved not simply to express what he said but also gestured, twisted, and grabbed the air to help me picture the words. Early in our conversation, he said, "There's not much difference between me and the bad guys -- except the FBI got to me first." The off-the-cuff comment startled me, but it made sense. If you're straight and narrow and you're going in undercover, you may be too conspicuous and your cover will be blown. Like a chameleon, you have to blend into the environment in which you're working. It never crossed my mind that people could go either way. I was young, from a town so small you might think it was just a bunch of nondescript wood frame houses at a dusty intersection. My sense had been that you were either right or wrong, that the rules in life were very black and white. This was just one of the myriad of core beliefs that would change radically for me in the months ahead. Tomaselli approached me moments after a seminar I cotaught in 1977 called "The Use of Hypnosis in Criminal Investigations." At that time, law enforcement was intrigued with the possibilities of using memory-enhancing techniques like hypnosis, so the seminar was well attended. I told them that hypnosis is simply a state of deep, intense focus and has nothing to do with magician's wands. I myself was the subject, but it wasn't at all about strutting around onstage like a chicken. I was shown a photograph of a crime on a subway before and after I was hypnotized. The officials in the room were impressed that I was able to recall many more of the details within the picture when I was hypnotized. Everyone in attendance learned that memory could be improved but not manufactured through hypnosis. Hundreds of investigators like Tomaselli had gathered just outside of Madison, Wisconsin, from around the state for a two-day conference about investigating and solving homicides more effectively. Many of the seminars dealt with hard-to-crack cases ... My Life Among the Serial Killers Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers . Copyright © by Helen Morrison. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from My Life among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers by Helen Morrison, Harold Goldberg All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.