“Dangerous Instincts,” by ex-FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole, makes generous use of real-world FBI criminal profiles on its way to helping its readers avoid physical, financial, legal and professional harm. It’s a fascinating approach. O’Toole’s thesis is that we can’t trust our instincts. Skilled psychopaths can disarm us.
I have to confess, though, that I found myself most intrigued by the case profiles, none more than Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. As it turns out, Robert Hansen and Gary Ridgway were active at the same time. By some coincidence, Ridgway’s crimes seemed to come to a halt after Hansen was caught and confessed. Though it never got far, some speculated that one man might be responsible for both sets of crimes. And that Robert Hansen might be that man.
He wasn’t, but it took almost two decades to learn the truth. Which is not to say these men don’t share some eerie similarities. Notes O’Toole:
Serial sexual predators like Gary Ridgway are able to lure their victims through impression management and by taking steps to look and behave as normally as possible. Gary hunted street-smart prostitutes who had worked the same strip for years. These were women who understood street survival… They were cognizant that there was danger out there, yet he was able to convince them — through charm and using props he kept in the car with him — that he was not a threat.
Ridgway sometimes took his young son with him. His victims assumed a father with a small boy would not be a serial murderer. Hansen did not use his son as a decoy, but instead lured women by offering them large sums of money for seemingly innocuous activities like “lunch” or “nude photo sessions.” One of Hansen’s living victims described him as looking “like someone’s grandfather,” which gave her a false sense of his harmlessness.
Here’s how O’Toole describes Gary Ridgway:
He was a normal-looking sixty-year old man with glasses. He was in good shape, with strong, muscled arms. He was polite, quiet, and smiled appropriately. He was actually nice.
If you’ve read “Butcher, Baker,” you’ll recognize Robert Hansen in that description. Of course, both men are psychopaths, so there’s more to the story. You cannot study Ridgway’s (or Robert Hansen’s) confession without sensing an utter lack of remorse or empathy. This is the classic sign of psychopathy. But it wasn’t until I read O’Toole’s matter-of-fact assessment of how this psychopathy manifests itself that I felt chills up my spine. Just quoting her rekindles that feeling.
This lack of remorse and empathy is what allows psychopathic serial sexual killers to sleep next to their wives after having just killed someone.
If that creeps you out, you might consider buying her book. You never know…