The Psychopath Whisperer Kent Kiehl is Executive Science Offi cer of the nonprofi t Mind Re- Inside the Minds of Those Without a search Network and Professor of Psychology, Neurosciences, and Law at the University of New Mexico. In addition to authoring more than Conscience 130 articles in peer-reviewed publications, including Nature and Sci- ence, Kiehl has writ ten for Scientifi c American, has appeared on US National Public Rardio, and was profi led by John Seabrook in The New Yorker. He currently directs fi ve major projects in psychopathy and related mental health funded by the UN National Institutes of Health. He lectures extensively to judges, lawyers, prison offi cials, and lay audiences about the inter section of neuroscience and the law. Kent Kiehl Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 3 11/03/2014 12:40 A Oneworld Book First published in Great Britain and Australia by Oneworld Publications 2014 Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company Copyright © Kent Kiehl 2014 For Mom and Dad The moral right of Kent Kiehl to be identifi ed as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78074-539-8 eBook ISBN 978-1-78074-540-4 Book design by Lauren Dong Illustrations by Fred Haynes Cover design by shepherdstudio.co.uk Printed and bound by Page Bros Ltd, Norwich, UK Oneworld Publications 10 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3SR Stay up to date with the latest books, special offers, and exclusive content from Oneworld with our monthly newsletter Sign up on our website www.oneworld-publications.com Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 4 11/03/2014 12:40 A Oneworld Book First published in Great Britain and the Commonwealth by Oneworld Publications 2014 Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company Copyright © Kent Kiehl 2014 For Mom and Dad The moral right of Kent Kiehl to be identifi ed as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78074-539-8 eBook ISBN 978-1-78074-540-4 Book design by Lauren Dong Illustrations by Fred Haynes Cover design by shepherdstudio.co.uk Printed and bound by Page Bros Ltd, Norwich, UK Oneworld Publications 10 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3SR Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 5 11/03/2014 12:40 Contents Chapter 1: Maximum Security 1 Chapter 2: Suffering Souls 35 Chapter 3: The Assassins 50 Chapter 4: The Psychopath Electri ed 78 Chapter 5: The Psychopath Magnetized 95 Chapter 6: Bad Beginnings 126 Chapter 7: Ivy League Lessons 151 Chapter 8: Teenage ‘Psychopaths’ 185 Chapter 9: Mobile Imaging 203 Chapter 10: The Decompression Chamber 216 Chapter 11: A Serial Killer Unmasked 228 Acknowledgements 269 Notes 271 Index 285 Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 6 11/03/2014 12:40 Contents Chapter 1: Maximum Security 1 Chapter 2: Suffering Souls 35 Chapter 3: The Assassins 50 Chapter 4: The Psychopath Electri ed 78 Chapter 5: The Psychopath Magnetized 95 Chapter 6: Bad Beginnings 126 Chapter 7: Ivy League Lessons 151 Chapter 8: Teenage ‘Psychopaths’ 185 Chapter 9: Mobile Imaging 203 Chapter 10: The Decompression Chamber 216 Chapter 11: A Serial Killer Unmasked 228 Acknowledgements 269 Notes 271 Index 285 Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 7 11/03/2014 12:40 The Psychopath Whisperer Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 8 11/03/2014 12:40 The Psychopath Whisperer Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 9 11/03/2014 12:40 Chapter 1 Maximum Security Fact: One in four maximum- security inmates is a psychopath. Day 1 The snap of the lock releasing shattered the still morning air as the large metal gate, adorned with rows of razor wire, crept open along an iron rail. The ‘lock shot’, as it was known, echoed off nearby buildings, amplifying the eeriness of an already macabre scene. Two twenty- foot- high parallel chain- link fences stretched a quarter mile in either direction of the gate. In the space between the fences was an eight- foot- high column of razor wire, a gauntlet not even the most agile convict could vault. There was not a soul in sight. The gate appeared to mysteriously recognize someone was ap- proaching and opened to welcome me to my fi rst day working in a maximum- security prison. That morning I had driven sixty miles through the rain from my residence in Vancouver to the town of Abbotsford, the home of sev- eral high- security prisons in the lower mainland of British Colum- bia, Canada. The Matsqui complex is just minutes off the freeway, surrounded by a collection of petrol stations and delis, no doubt to feed the hundreds of vehicles and staff who commute to the location each day. The entrance to the compound is nondescript except for the sign indicating that all visitors and vehicles on the property are Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 10 11/03/2014 12:40 Chapter 1 Maximum Security Fact: One in four maximum- security inmates is a psychopath. Day 1 The snap of the lock releasing shattered the still morning air as the large metal gate, adorned with rows of razor wire, crept open along an iron rail. The ‘lock shot’, as it was known, echoed off nearby buildings, amplifying the eeriness of an already macabre scene. Two twenty- foot- high parallel chain- link fences stretched a quarter mile in either direction of the gate. In the space between the fences was an eight- foot- high column of razor wire, a gauntlet not even the most agile convict could vault. There was not a soul in sight. The gate appeared to mysteriously recognize someone was ap- proaching and opened to welcome me to my fi rst day working in a maximum- security prison. That morning I had driven sixty miles through the rain from my residence in Vancouver to the town of Abbotsford, the home of sev- eral high- security prisons in the lower mainland of British Colum- bia, Canada. The Matsqui complex is just minutes off the freeway, surrounded by a collection of petrol stations and delis, no doubt to feed the hundreds of vehicles and staff who commute to the location each day. The entrance to the compound is nondescript except for the sign indicating that all visitors and vehicles on the property are Psychopath Whisperer short royal.indd 11 11/03/2014 12:40 2 The Psychopath Whisperer Maximum Security 3 subject to search and seizure for contraband. The vista stretches as door popped open; I gently pushed it forward. As I took my fi rst few far as the eye can see, rolling hills of dark green grass dotted with steps into this new environment, I smiled to myself that my fi rst castlelike structures surrounded by moats of high fences topped with concern, a cavity search, had not come to pass as I went through razor wire and fi fty- foot- high turrets placed strategically at each security. I made a mental note to get even with the senior graduate bend in the fence. At the end of a long road is the Regional Health student who had told me that cavity searches of new staff were com- Centre (RHC) – a name that belies its guests. RHC is a maximum- mon in Canadian prisons. security treatment facility for sex offenders and violent offenders. Its Inmates dressed in white T- shirts, jeans, and dark green jackets 250 beds contain some of the most dangerous criminals in Canada. milled around the laundry, barbershop, and chapel as I walked from It was my new place of work. the administration entrance to psychiatry. The halls smelled like I was a twenty- three- year- old fi rst-year graduate student. On the disinfectant, and I pondered what chemicals were used to clean up early morning drive, I thought about how wholly unprepared I was blood. for my fi rst day of interviewing prisoners in the violent offender fa- I entered the large, ominous building at the end of the walkway. cility. For the past several years, I had divided my time between I wandered down the corridor like a lost child until I came upon a studying the research literature on psychopaths, undergoing train- sign on an offi ce door that said DR BRINK. Sitting there, oddly facing ing in brain- imaging techniques, and engaging in a loosely related away from the open door, almost inviting me to sneak up and scare line of research on a study of the brain electrical activity associated him, was Chief Forensic Psychiatrist Dr Johann Brink. I’d met Dr with auditory processes of killer whales, comparable in many ways Brink just three months earlier at a NATO- funded Advanced Study to those of humans. Becoming ever more fascinated by psychopathy Institute on psychopathy in Alvor, Portugal. Over numerous dinners research, I had also been vigorously pursuing mentorship with my and bottles of wine, I had convinced Dr Brink to collaborate with academic hero, the founding father of modern research in psychopa- me on my EEG studies of psychopaths. He helped me get my proto- thy, Professor Robert D.