Michael Slade - Headhunter

"That means, does it not," DeClercq said slowly, "that the person responsible for the Headhunter killings may for all intents and purposes be as indistinguishable as the man who lives next door?"

"It means," said Dr. Ruryk, "that the Headhunter might very well be the man next door. In fact, the man next door may be the Headhunter and not even know it himself. You see, this is the sort of situation that occurs in documented cases of split personality. It would be possible for our killer to have created 'an Imposter' within his mind and then to have psychologically assumed the role of 'the Imposter' and subconsciously buried and forgotten the personality that created him. This is precisely the situation that Stevenson was writing about in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, except that in that story the process was externalized, whereas we are talking about transactions totally contained within the human mind. In such a case should the killer want out he merely assumes the body of the Imposter but shuts down the Imposter's artificial awareness until he — the unrecognized psychopathic personality — slips back into hiding once again. At that point the awareness of the Imposter will reactivate and know nothing about what has happened. He — the Imposter — then walks outside and you and I spend a few boring minutes watching him water his lawn."

DeClercq asked: "Is mental abnormality genetically inherited?"

"We don't know," Ruryk replied cautiously. "It is definitely passed on from one generation to the next. But that could be by genetics or by socialization."

DeClercq: "Now might I ask you, doctor, for your general impression of the killer whom we seek?"

"To answer that," Ruryk said, "I'll ask another question: 'Why have the heads gone missing?' That to me is the mystery. And I can think of four possible answers:

"Each head is removed to impede identification of the victim.

"Each head is removed to satisfy cannibalistic desires on the part of the killer toward that section of the female body.

"Each head is collected for some reason as a trophy of the killing.

"Each head is removed because the killer has a fetish for female hair.

"Let's take them one by one.

"Does the Headhunter take the head to prevent victim identification? This I doubt. Though it is not without precedent — indeed Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, contemplated this very act concerning his sixth victim, Jean Jordan — I would expect the killer to have cut off the fingers too. In a frenzy of murder he might forget this second act concerning the first body, but not the subsequent ones. So that to my mind leaves us with one of the three perversions.

"Does the Headhunter take the head in a cannibalistic craving? Very possibly so.

"I note, Superintendent, in one of your reports the possible theory that the killer or killers may be members of a cannibalistic cult. You refer to the Zebra killings and you mention the local Kwakiutl Indians and their history in that direction. I can think of a few even more blatant examples.

"Take for example the crimes of the man upon whose murders are loosely based two motion pictures — Hitchcock's Psycho and the cult film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

"Ed Gein was a farmer in Plainfield, Wisconsin. According to psychiatric reports his mother had been a religious fanatic who exerted a strong overbearing influence on her son.

"After her death it is believed that Gein had read of the sex change undertaken by Christine Jorgensen and wished himself to become a woman — to become his mother.

"At first a grave robber, he later took to murdering women.

"In a shed next to his large farmhouse Gein would skin each corpse and then study his dissected trophies. He began to don the skins that he removed and wear them for hours draped over his own body so as to experience a bizarre thrill in thinking himself a woman.

"Psycho is based on this premise. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, however, is concerned with another aspect.

"After Gein was arrested the local Sheriff went to the farmhouse. There he found a woman's body with its head cut off. hanging upside down from the ceiling of the shed. Scattered around the main house, the Sheriff located a number of Ed Gein's trophies: there were bracelets made of human skin, four female noses in a cup on the kitchen table, a pair of human lips on a string dangling from a windowsill, two human shin bones, strips of human skin used to brace four chairs, a tomtom made from a coffee can with human skin stretched over both the top and bottom, a pair of leggings made from the skin of several women, the skin from a female torso converted into a vest, nine death masks made from skinned female faces mounted on the walls, ten heads belonging to women sawed off above the eyebrows to open up their brain vaults, another head converted into a soup bowl, and a purse that Gein had made with handles of human skin.

"A further search revealed that the refrigerator was stocked with frozen human organs and that a human heart was in a frying pan on the stove. By the Sheriff s estimate, the various body pieces discovered would add up to fifteen women. Of course no one knows how many more Gein had consumed over the years.

"In December of 1957 — after admitting to graverobbing, intercourse with the bodies and cannibalizing the remains — Gein was committed for life to an — institution for the criminally insane where, I believe, he resides today.

"I could go on and on with the cases of modern cannibals," the psychiatrist said. "The public is either not aware — or soon forgets — just how common a practice it is.

"The point is," Ruryk said, "that every jurisdiction has similar cannibal cases. That's why I say that this very well might be the reason why the Headhunter cuts off heads. And if it is the reason, I'll venture he's eating the brains."

At this juncture they took a break while DeClercq turned over the tape. Ruryk packed and poked his pipe and then he continued.

"Does the Headhunter take the head to collect it as a trophy? Well this I think is also a distinct possibility.

"Again we have the case of Ed Gein: nine skinned female faces were found mounted like masks on the walls of his farmhouse. Though the animal is human, the psychology at work here is that of the big game hunter. The trophy above the mantel.

"And finally: Does the Headhunter take the head because he has a fetish for female hair? Again very likely.

"In one of your reports, Superintendent, you have noted that the first three victims all had long black hair. To my mind the killing of the nun might also fit this pattern, for in that case her black cowl is a symbolic representation. What one must realize is that a fetishist is a person preoccupied with symbol.,

"The psychological link between sex and hair goes back a very long way.

"Prostitutes, of course, have used this knowledge for centuries; a large percentage of them keep a selection of wigs to meet the psychological needs of their various clients.

"A problem arises, however, when a mania develops.

"In a case of mania we find that the affected person's mind has upset or lost its natural connection with reality. An obsession has taken over resulting in the collecting of or concentration upon some concrete object which the mind links to sex.

"Hair is a prime example. Take the case of John Reginald Halliday Christie, a sexual psychopath who committed eight murders of women between 1940 and 1953.

"Before disposing of the bodies he would shave off the pubic hair and store it in a tobacco tin. Later when his fetish overtook him, he would gloat over the tin of hair, masturbating as he did so."

At this point Dr. Ruryk glanced around for an ashtray. DeClercq handed him an empty flower pot.