What’s A “Good” Psychopath?
“P sychopath up.” says Dr. Kevin Dutton, a leading expert on functional psychopathy. “A bit of localized psychopathy is good for all of us.” Huh? Your first reaction might be that Dutton, a research psychologist from Oxford University, and author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths, might have had one too many servings of bangers and […]
The Bloody Benders
H ave you ever heard of a serial killer family? The Bloody Benders were the first in the United States. Over a century later, you can still find them in books, TV, and on the big screen – people never get tired of their story! It was the 1870s. There were four Benders in the […]
Psychopaths Who DON’T Kill
A re there really psychopaths who don’t kill? Most psychopaths are not murderers. They’re all around us – often successful in careers from blue-collar to high level executives and professionals. Think of it as a Psychopathic Spectrum – a scale that measures the number of psychopathic traits in an individual. Like any scale, a person […]
Who is Joshua Jenkins? An Author’s Tale.
M ost people have forgotten the teenager or never heard of him. I used to be one of them. It was a lovely day in Los Angeles. I had just flown in from New York to visit my friend, Fern. One of our favorite pastimes was to swap stories – everything from local people to […]
Six Killer Psychopaths Explain Themselves
P sychopaths have no empathy – no conscience – they don’t care what people think or say about them. Their only concern is self-gratification. A psychopath will lie as easily as tell the truth since there’s no guilt, regret, or responsibility for their words. In general, their language is filled with self-references reflecting their ego-centric lives. […]
A Thimbleful of Arsenic
I t was the 1870s and everyone was humming a popular song: Lydia Sherman is plagued with rats Lydia has no faith in cats. So Lydia buys some arsenic, And then her husband, he does die, And Lydia’s neighbors wonder why. Lydia moves, but still has rats; And still she puts no faith in cats; […]
Can You Spot A Psychopath?
N ot all psychopaths are murderers and not all murderers are psychopaths. There are a lot of psychopaths out there who aren’t physically violent. There are also a lot of people who have some (but not all) psychopathic behaviors (see The Psychopathic Spectrum). Can you spot a psychopath? Read the questions below and choose the […]
What’s in a Last Meal?
W hat’s in a Last Meal? Why are we intrigued by death row last meals? A google search of “last meals on death row” produced over 3.5 million results. There are famous last meals, strange last meals, haunting last meals, and everything else. The concept captures the morbid imagination of everyone from movie producers to scientists […]
The Scariest Shows
I ‘ve conducted countless interviews, seen hundreds of movies, TV shows, documentaries, and read books about psychopaths. There’s only one series that makes Criminal Minds look like family fun. When you watch, your blood turns to ice, you check your doors and windows, and go to bed with the light on. If the voice doesn’t […]
Chucky’s Big Brother Robert
E veryone knows Chucky, the infamous killer doll and horror movie icon, popular since 1988. How many people have heard of Robert – the real life demon doll on which Chucky was based? It was 1906. Robert the doll was a gift to young Eugene from a serving girl who had been mistreated by Gene’s […]