The Long Island Ripper

From this morning's NY Times: 

Serial Killer in L.I.Case Is Seen as Versed in Police Techniques

Whoever killed four prostitutes, and possibly four other people, and then dumped their bodies in heavy underbrush along a beachfront causeway on Long Island appears to have a sophisticated understanding of police investigative techniques, according to people briefed on the case.

A series of taunting phone calls made to the teenage sister of one of the victims — calls that the police suspect came from the killer — were made from in or around some of the most crowded locations in New York City, including Madison Square Garden and Times Square, according to the people briefed on the case and to the mother of Melissa Barthelemy, that victim.

The locations, detectives say, were probably chosen because they allowed the caller to blend into crowds, so that if investigators pinpointed his location from the cellphone’s signal, they would be unable to pick him out of the crowd using any nearby surveillance cameras, one of the people said.

This fact, as well as the killer’s use of disposable cellphones to contact the four victims who have been identified — women in their 20s who advertised their services on Craigslist — suggested to some investigators that the killer was well versed in criminal investigative techniques, gleaned either through personal experience or in some other way, and could even be in law enforcement himself.

“He is a guy who is aware of how we utilize technology,” one investigator said. “Frankly, people are thinking maybe he could be a cop” — either one still in law enforcement or one who has moved on.

“Without question, this guy is smart, this guy is not a dope,” the investigator continued. “It’s a guy who thinks about things.”

Also, the caller kept each of his vulgar, mocking and insulting calls to less than three minutes, according to the dead woman’s mother, Lynn Barthelemy. The caller made about a half-dozen calls over roughly five weeks to the victim’s sister.

One investigator said the brief duration of the calls thwarted efforts by the New York Police Department to use the signal to pinpoint the caller’s location and find him, something Lynn Barthelemy said they told her they tried to do four times. 

Unmentioned by the Times article is that investigators now think that a series of slayings near Atlantic City may be tied in with the Long Island killings. The most prolific serial killers tend to be the smartest. And the smarter they are, the more interesting they get. (That's what made Hannibal Lecter such a compelling villain.)

What will be most interesting is when we find out the family background of the killer, which is effectively the why, or the motive, behind the crime. We don't always get to hear about that, but when we do, it's always an aha moment. It will also be interesting to hear about his recent life, and see all the behaviors -- beside his killing -- that betray his sociopathy.

The cops think he may be a cop. If you follow serial killers, it's striking how many of them have tried to go into law enforcement at some point. Most get rejected, but some -- and possibly the Long Island Ripper, as he's been dubbed by the Post -- make it through. It makes you wonder how many police officers are sociopaths, and what a socioopath's motive for going into that line of work is.

Another possibility, of course, is that the police are deliberately leaking these flattering quotes about him ("Without question, this guy is smart, this guy is not a dope") in an effort to get him to let his guard down. Law enforcement does do stuff like that on occasion.

This case is also a good illustration of how full of rage, frustration, and hatred sociopaths are. I've heard of cases like this before, where a killer will phone up family members of his victim to taunt them. Imagine being one of those family members, knowing that you are talking to your loved one's killer, and listening to him laugh at you and describe in intimate detail how he killed her.

Now imagine being that killer. If you killed someone, would you not feel horrible that you had ended a human life, and that another human being will never breathe or talk or laugh again because of you? A serial killer, of course, feels none of that, otherwise he would not become what he is. But even if the person you killed was a monster who had made your life hell and you killed in self-defense, can you imagine being so full of bile that you still have to vent some of it by phoning your victim's family to taunt them?

The sociopaths I've known have all been pressure cookers who must constantly vent their poison in all sorts of ways, both subtle and unsubtle.

This is true of run of the mill sociopaths as well as serial killers: they are always seething cauldrons of hatred, spite, anger, jealousy, resentment, and vindictiveness. Sociopaths know how to fake the positive emotions -- affection, love, loyalty, admiration, and gratitude -- quite well. But they never really feel them. All they feel are the negative ones. 

Anytime you are ever tempted, for whatever reason, to feel envious of a sociopath, remember that: they never, ever have peace of mind.