Mark Olshaker - The Killer Across the Table

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Mindhunters, Inc.

Cover design by Jack Smythe

Cover images by shutterstock

John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker assert their moral right to be

Identified as the authors of this work in accordance with

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Abstract paint background image on part titles by Eky Studio/shutterstock

Splattered bloodstain background image on table of contents by oriontrail/shutterstock

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Source ISBN: 9780008338152

Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008338138

Version: 2020-07-24

To the memory of Joan Angela D’Alessandro and in honor of Rosemarie D’Alessandro and all of the others who, through their inspiration, courage, and determination, strive for justice and safety for all children, this book is dedicated with love and admiration

COVER

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

AUTHORS’ NOTE

IN A SMALL ROOM IN THE BIG HOUSE

INTRODUCTION: LEARNING FROM THE EXPERTS

I THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

1 LITTLE GIRL LOST

2 “I SLEPT WELL”

3 MIND OF THE KILLER

4 HUMAN FALLOUT

5 WHAT THE PSYCH PEOPLE SAID

6 RED RAGE AND WHITE RAGE

7 THE BOTTOM LINE

8 “SUBSTANTIAL LIKELIHOOD”

9 JOAN’S LEGACY

II “KILLING FOR ME WAS JUST LIKE SECOND NATURE”

10 ALL IN THE FAMILY

11 THE ABANDONED VOLKSWAGEN

12 INSIDE THE WALLS

13 “THE CONVENIENCE OF THE SITUATION”

14 “THERE WERE VICTIMS IN BETWEEN”

15 POWER, CONTROL, EXCITEMENT

III ANGEL OF DEATH

16 PLAYING GOD

17 WORKING NIGHTS

18 THE MAKING OF A KILLER

19 “I HAVEN’T CHANGED A BIT”

20 FALLEN ANGEL

IV “NO ONE MADE ME DO ANYTHING”

21 THE SUPERBIKE MURDERS

22 WHAT HAPPENED TO KALA AND CHARLIE?

23 WHAT MADE TODD TICK?

24 “GOOD OR BAD, I STILL WANT TO KNOW”

25 ORGANIZED VERSUS DISORGANIZED

26 NATURE AND NURTURE

EPILOGUE: A KILLER’S CHOICE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALSO BY JOHN E. DOUGLAS AND MARK OLSHAKER

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

AUTHORS’ NOTE

The opinions expressed in this book belong to the authors alone and do not reflect those of the FBI or any other organization.

IN A SMALL ROOM IN THE BIG HOUSE

Here, it is not so much Who done it?, but Why?

And in the end, if we have discovered the Why? and add in How?, we will also come to understand the Who? Because Why? + How? = Who.

The aim is not to be a friend. The aim is not to be a foe. The aim is to get to the truth.

It is a verbal and mental chess match without any game pieces; a sparring session without body contact; an endurance contest in which each side will seek out and exploit the other’s weaknesses and insecurities.

We sit across a small table from each other in a dimly lit room whose cinder-block walls are painted a pale bluish gray. The only window is in the locked steel door, and it is small and reinforced with wire mesh. A uniformed guard peers through from the other side, making sure everything remains in order.

In a maximum security prison, nothing is considered more important.

We have been at this for two hours already and finally the moment is ripe. “I want to know in your own words what it was like twenty-five years ago,” I say. “How did this all happen to get you here? That girl—Joan—did you know her?”

“Well, I’d seen her in the neighborhood,” he replies. His affect is calm and his tone is even.

“Let’s go back to the moment she came to the door. Tell me what happened, step by step, from that point on.”

It is almost like hypnosis. The room is silent, and I watch him transform in front of me. Even his physical appearance seems to change before my eyes. His eyes are unfocused and he looks beyond me to stare at the vacant wall. He is moving back to another time and another place; to the one story of himself that has never left his mind.

The room is very cold, and even though I wear a suit, I struggle to keep myself from shivering. But as he recounts the story I have asked for, he has begun to perspire. His breathing grows heavier and more audible. Soon his shirt is drenched with sweat, and underneath, the muscles of his chest tremble.

He relates the entire story in this manner, not looking at me; almost talking to himself. He is in the zone, in that time and that place, thinking now what he was thinking then.

For a moment, he turns back to face me. He looks me square in the eyes as he says, “John, when I heard the knock and looked up through the screen door and saw who was there, I knew I was going to kill her.”

INTRODUCTION

LEARNING FROM THE EXPERTS

This is a book about the way violent predators think—the bedrock of my twenty-five years as an FBI special agent, behavioral profiler, and criminal investigative analyst, as well as the work I have done since my retirement from the bureau.

But it’s really a book about conversations I had. After all, conversations are where it all began for me, conversations in which I learned how to use what a predatory criminal was thinking to help local law enforcement officials to catch him and bring him to justice. For me, that was the beginning of behavioral profiling.

I started interviewing incarcerated violent offenders out of what I considered personal and institutional necessity, but in many ways, it began with a desire to understand the underlying motivations behind criminals. Like most new FBI special agents, I was assigned as a street agent. My first posting was in Detroit. Right from the beginning, I was interested in why people committed their crimes—not only that they committed crimes at all, but why they committed the particular crimes they did.