Brian Lane - Mind Games with a Serial Killer

Well, I guess that’s about all there is to say to you for right now. Until later, take care and I’ll talk to you as soon as we get our telephone back.

BILL L. SUFF

J.83402—1EB65

SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON

SAN QUENTIN, CA 94974

Hello Brian,

FINALLY! I just got hold of the property officer today and got the enclosed Quarterly Package Form (QPF) from him. All you need do is sign your name and write your relationship as either ‘Attorney’ or ‘friend’ in the respective places at the bottom of the form. Then clip along the dotted line and make sure that it’s securely attached to the outside of the package where it will be readily visible to the property officer when it arrives here. Be sure to follow the “General Instructions” shown above the dotted line. If there is even a hint of an infraction to those rules, it will be refused here. You can send the package out by either U.P.S. or regular mail, certified. But, U.P.S. is preferred. As you can see under the heading of “Miscellaneous Items”, #8 states that I can only receive (4) writing implements. So if you want to send me more, let me know and I’ll get another QPF and send that one to you also.

The reason I circled #6 was to let you know that if you can find the type of paper this letter is typed on, you can put one or two reams of it in the package, also. Or the paper can come in under a separate cover as Legal Supplies. I cleared that one with the legal mail officer. The legal mail office considers envelopes, stamps and paper as legal supplies. For some strange reason, though, they don’t consider a pen or pencil as legal supplies!!? The legal mail officer couldn’t give me an answer on that one. San Quentin methodology!

If you decide you want to send some other items in the package, here’s a list of what I would appreciate:

FOOD ITEMS

#1 – Any of the soft Granola Bars are good; M&M’s, Lemon Drops, etc. Especially Tootsie Rolls (not the Pops – I guess they’re afraid we’ll make some kind of stabbing weapon out of the paper handle.)

#2 – Just about any kind of the cream filled cookies are good for me. No coconut types, though. Allergy.

#4 – Sunflower Seeds (shelled)! My great love. I used to stop on my way to work each morning and buy several bags of the Planter’s type to last me throughout the day.

#6 – In particular, the Twinkies and chocolate cup cakes. None of those Puff Balls that Rosie O’Donnell loves so much, though… Coconut! Ugh!!

#7 – The only dried meat products I like are the beef, turkey, and ostrich jerkys.

#9 – Instant teas are great, especially with lemon and presweetened.

#10 – Any of the Kool-Aid powder drinks or Tang drinks.

#11 – Any of the large or twin size chips are okay. Tater chips are preferred over the Doritos brand. Doritos and Fritos are acceptable, though.

- and –

#12 – Any of the Hormel or Top Shelf type meals that only require boiling (my microwave oven blew a fuse and won’t work now – ha, ha).

Any product that says “refrigeration recommended” on it is not allowed.

As to the Clothing and other Miscellaneous items listed goes, there are a few things I’d like, but not bad enough to trouble you with them.

Now, I’m not asking you to send any of the items I mentioned in this letter. But if you decide to make this dreary existence a little better and want to send some of those items, it would be appreciated more than words can describe. It’s entirely up to you. You will notice, though, that I didn’t list either tobacco or coffee. That’s because I would have no use for them. Besides, all of the regular officers here know that I cannot deal with those items.

I got a visit today (Monday) from Patty Daniels. I hope you don’t mind, but I gave her your new phone number and address. She wanted to talk to you about how you were going to set up our meeting in the conference room (that we didn’t get). Seems the CAP attorneys have been told they cannot have any legal visits in that room. She was surprised when I told her that we were supposed to get that room. So don’t be surprised if a phone call comes out of the blue from her for you. She was here to check up on me to see how I was doing. She almost blew a gasket when she saw that I still haven’t received an order for modified cuffs. When she saw the marks on my wrists left by the single cuffs, she began to give the officer handcuffing me a tongue lashing. I calmed her down, though. But she’s going to pull a run around the end play on the system to get me an order for modified cuffs. She was very interested in what

Don’s up to now. She didn’t know a lot about the stuff he’s been pulling and she’s got a little bit of temper directed at him. Anyway, all-in-all, it was a pretty good visit. She bought me a Pepsi and a chicken breast sandwich when she got here. Those were like manna from heaven. Only trouble is we only got to talk for one hour, instead of the two she had originally planned on. Seems, like our visit, someone else was booked into our visiting booth sooner than they were supposed to be. Oh well, mix-ups are still happening.

Well, I still have to write (type) up a couple things for Patty tonight, so I guess I’d better close here. Take care and write back when you get a chance.

From the beginning, I assumed that if I dug hard enough I would find the “smoking gun” in Bill Suff’s background that turned him into a serial killer.

And, once you’ve smoked out your killer, the profilers automatically assume that you will turn up a youth spent wetting the bed, starting fires, and vivisecting/dissecting small animals. This “unholy triad” of nasty behavior seems to be a constant. Once born, the serial killer “larva” does in fact behave in ways that give away the truth of his inner turmoil, if only we are wise enough to take heed. Of course, once he reaches the “pupal” state, he’s killing people.

I asked Ann about Bill’s activities as a kid.

“No, Billy was always a good boy,” she said, then thought for a minute, and then added: “Now Donny, he wet the bed ’til he was six, and Bobby, well, he was the firestarter, and Kenny, well, we never could seem to keep pets very long. But Bill, no, he never did any of that stuff.”

I believed her. But maybe Bill didn’t have to dirty his hands because whatever release comes or whatever curiosity is fulfilled by such activity was his by osmosis, by vicarious living. Indeed, as the brightest, strongest, and oldest of the bunch, maybe Bill was the one who insidiously created the atmosphere where all these things could take place under the same roof. Maybe Bill sort of moved each of his brothers into doing the sick things he fantasized.

Bill hinted at it when he was recounting his heroic experiences as a volunteer firefighter, first with the forestry service while a senior in high school and then with the local Perris Fire Department immediately after graduation.

“Y’know, seems like every time I went out there to fight a fire, Bobby’d be there on his bike, cheering me on. He just always seemed to come riding up, like he knew I’d be there even before I did, before we got the call.”

“You’re saying he started the fires?”

“I’m saying he enjoyed watching his big brother be a hero.”

And big brother enjoyed being a hero being watched and appreciated by everyone else.

But, if all this somehow represents Bill’s expression of the “unholy triad”, then the smoking gun had to have smoked long before.