Many pieces build up the picture of a killer
Criminal profiler Paul Britton explains to Willie Kealy how we can all help spot the murderer in our midst
OVER the past 25 years, a number of young women have disappeared in Ireland. The bodies of some of them have been found. But many have not and their families have been left wondering what has happened to their daughter or their sister.
Antoinette Smith was murdered and buried in the Dublin Mountains in 1987. In March 1993 an American student, Annie McCarrick, 26, disappeared on a day trip to the mountains. In November 1995, 21-year-old Jo Jo Dullard disappeared while hitching home at night in Moone, Co Kildare. In July 1998 Deirdre Jacob, an 18-year-old teaching student, was grabbed off the road near her home in Newbridge, Co Kildare. Eva Brennan, a quiet 40-year-old single woman who looked much younger than her age, was last seen leaving her parents' home in Terenure, south Dublin on Sunday, 25 July 1993. Imelda Keenan, 22, disappeared on January 3, 1994, in Waterford city. On August 23, 1996, Fiona Pender, 25, a pregnant former beauty queen, disappeared from Tullamore. On February 13, 1997, 17-year-old Ciara Breen was reported missing from Dundalk, Co Louth. In February 1998, 19-year-old Fiona Sinnott disappeared from her home at Ballycushlane in Co Wexford.
All of these young women are believed to have been murdered; their families are bereft and wondering just what awful fate befell them.
In each case the killer has defied detection and remains at large. And it is safe to assume they continue to live apparently normal lives in their communities. They go to work if they have work. They go home in the evenings to their families if they have families. They probably socialise. Inside in their heads some of them may be loners, but they can probably act the part of a convivial person. They may even be gregarious.
According to the most internationally renowned expert profiler, Paul Britton, the idea of the oddball loner as killer is often a myth. But most importantly, they don’t stand out.
Undoubtedly some of those who have killed are psychopaths or sociopaths. But some may be otherwise normal people who, through drink, or drugs, a kink of the psyche or from just being evil, found themselves the perpetrators of the ultimate crime. But they got away with it through luck or cunning, as their survival instinct kicked in, in the immediate aftermath. We are not talking here about the professional hitman. But gardai have not ruled out a serial killer. One person could be responsible for more than one of these presumed murders.
So, could that man sitting down the bar from you, sipping his pint, be harbouring a dark secret? Could that person you see every day going through what appears to be a normal routine, be, in fact, an undetected murderer?
If you are a family member, especially if you are a wife, could that man sitting across from you in the sitting room of an evening, be a killer?
According to Paul Britton, employers and co-workers are probably in a better position to notice the little clues than family members. They have the opportunity to observe a person over a period, without the emotional attachment of family. And it isn’t just changes in personality that can provide the clues, but the actual personality traits themselves.
Of course it would be a mistake for the whole country to get paranoid. But every time some young woman or girl disappears, somebody is responsible. And every time it happens, the gardai appeal for information.
‘The idea of the oddball loner as killer is often a myth’
They sometimes say that somebody probably knows something or at least suspects. And they appeal for those people to come forward with any information they may have, no matter how insignificant. Paul Britton says media appeals by the police have sometimes elicited helpful information, though rarely from family; more likely from associates.
But it is easy to be blind. How often have people in the circle of a captured killer said that they would never have suspected that person? That he seemed the most normal guy in their world. And if the signs are anything more subtle than blood-spattered clothes and a crazed look in the eye, they can be hard to spot. But not impossible. And certainly not in the immediate aftermath of the crime. Paul Britton says the little connections that could be looked for are not always obvious and often it is only in retrospect that a killer seems to us to be a monster.
Some criminal profilers will tell you that the adrenalin rush from a killing is so intense that it is practically impossible to come down from it quickly. And so, for any normal person, for anyone who is not actually a psychopath, it would be next to impossible to go from killer to acting in a completely normal manner. Paul Britton has another view. He says that the “high”, the sense of power that some killers get from the vicious act, doesn’t last long, and indeed, that fact can contribute to their temptation to chase that particular dragon and become serial killers.
It may be that there are people out there who thought at the time of a murder or disappearance that they knew someone who was acting a bit odd; that they were more than normally nervous and sensitive; that they over-reacted to the smallest thing. But putting that together with a high-profile story on the television or in the newspapers would take a hell of a leap — unless you already had some concerns.
“Not everyone will show the same signs,” Paul Britton says. “It is important to know their baseline. Then you can see the variations. Anything that moves away from the baseline is something that should make you want to think a little more.”
But as the killer can regain a public composure, so the fears of those who know him can be pushed to the back of the mind as the mood of normality is restored. And they might even think that they had a narrow escape. After all, what would be the consequences if they had gone to the gardai, and they had been wrong? But there must also be cases of wives or girlfriends or mothers and fathers, friends or colleagues, for whom that nagging suspicion has never gone away. They may live with that for years. They may take it to the grave. Or something may happen to cause them to decide to come clean. A continuing pattern of domestic violence or a bitter break-up, for instance. But by then it may appear to be too late.
But for the gardai who have spent years investigating some of these cold-case macabre mysteries, there is no such thing as too late. Even if the fears or suspicions seem tenuous, the gardai will take them and test them. There have been tremendous advances in forensics, making it possible to get convictions long after the crime has been committed.
So have another look at that man sitting across from you having the cup of tea and reading the paper, or sipping his pint down the bar when the news is on. How does he react when there is a story about a missing girl or a murder, or a retrospective on the disappeared women? Does he flinch or look uncomfortable? Does he seem anxious to change the subject quickly if it comes up in conversation?
Does he keep secrets? Is he furtive or often unaccountably irritable? Does he anger easily? Does he lie a lot? Do you frequently catch him out in untruths, not necessarily about big things? The pattern is more important than the individual lie. Is he vague in his answers about where he has been, what he has been doing or who he has been with?
Of course all of these things may mean nothing more than that he is having an affair or just up to a kind of no good that stops a long way short of murder. But maybe, just maybe, it means more. Every little piece of information may help to build up a picture of the killer. Tony Britton says: “If you have the why, you can get the how. And when you have a good analysis of the person, you almost always catch them.”