Making a Killing off a Murderer: An Analysis of the Crime and Documentary - Part Two

Before I continue tonight with Part Two of my analysis of Making a Murderer, I want to complement the producers on making a really fine documentary, top quality, slick in fact, the kind of documentary that wins awards, so well made that a viewer would have a hard time not jumping on the bandwagon to free Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey and to condemn the police investigators and prosecutor and the original defense attorney for Dassey. There are good guys (Avery, Dassey, and Avery's defense team who are fighting for truth and justice) and there are bad guys (anyone thinking or suggesting Avery and Dassey are guilty of the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach). Which side do YOU want to be on?

There is no evenhandedness with the presentation of this documentary. If you think there is, it is because the producers included bits of "tch-tches" to show how the good guys are, of course, human, that we are not trying to whitewash our characters. We all make mistakes, but we don't deserve to be railroaded and have our lives ruined, do we? Even if the "good guys" aren't perfect, we can sympathize with them and get on their team. On the other hand, the producers work overtime to never show the "bad guys" in any sympathetic light, because, they are the devil incarnate, not just mildly flawed human beings like the other side; they are the enemy.

In other words, the producers and a number of the "good guys" in the documentary straight up lie and slander, but we are supposed to not notice this - and if we do note that something is not quite truthful - we let it slip by - because these moments are glossed over quickly and then the film segways into the "bad guys" doing their conspiracy thing so that any conflicting emotions we might have had for a minute quickly get lost in the disgust we feel for what is being done to the innocent men and their families.

I will repeat again; hundreds of hours of filming is edited down to what you see. Each statement allowed in the documentary is handpicked for what emotion it will evoke and what will support the narrative. For example, Steven Avery is always presented as a placid fellow; he speaks with a slow, calm voice throughout the entire documentary. If the producers must include anything about Avery that is a bit unsavory, then Avery is giving his version in a voiceover while a selected portion of evidence flits by on the screen.

Take the cat "incident" that Avery softly explains was just a foolish moment with a bad group of friends (psychopaths always blame others and don't take responsibility for their actions); where he was just playing and tossed the cat over a fire and the cat got lit up. A silly prank that went so awry he got nailed with animal abuse and spent nine months in jail.

Avery flat out lied. The producers let him lie to the viewers. This was in Episode One and right there, viewers should realize they are not going to get the truth from this documentary; that the producers are not going to be ethical and present a factual series about Avery and the circumstances of his legal situation.

It is a fact that Avery poured flammable liquid on the cat and chucked it into the fire to watch it suffer and die. Avery was an adult at the time and coldbloodedly tortured his pet in front of other people. He shows no remorse. Psychopaths often commit impulsive acts for their amusement and don't think about the consequences. If they end up paying for their evil acts, they feel no shame or guilt and blame others for why they did what they did and for the resulting penalty. Many a serial killer has claimed the victim caused him to lose his temper and that is why he is in jail ("The bitch made me do it" excuse). In fact, Avery and his defense attorneys toss down this very card as to why he got nailed for the earlier sexual assault for which he was wrongfully convicted. Avery's cousin told people that Avery was acting like a pervert in front of her (masturbating) and his response was to run her off the road, point a gun at her, and threaten to kill her.  But, again, we hear Avery's soft voice downplaying the incident and then the attorneys claiming that it was this no-big-deal moment that led to the hatred the cops had for him and the first arrest, not that his own behaviors put him in the crosshairs. Later in the show, letters are shown that Avery wrote to his kids - first sweet ones and then ones threatening to kill their mother - but, Avery again just had a bit of frustration because of his situation and his soft voice tells us of his struggles; of course, it is his wrongful incarceration that causes him to threaten to kill people (as if all people who are wrongfully incarcerated would do the same).

Full stop. What Avery has really shown us if we don't fall for the producers' manipulation is that he is a violent psychopath. He exhibits all the traits of a psychopath: narcissim (it IS always about him), manipulativeness, poor behavioral controls, pathological lying, lack of remorse, emotionally shallow, lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility for his own actions, impulsivity,  need for excitement, and a grandiose sense of self-worth. Not only does he exhibit psychopathic traits but he also exhibits a penchant for violence, sadism, and sexual perversion. And fire setting. So he is actual right on the mark for being a sexually sadistic psychopath.....and a serial killer. Yet, the producers of this documentary want us to believe he is just a poor, uneducated schmuck who has been dealt a raw deal because people in the community don't like him or his family because they are not upper class citizens. In reality, he had a reputation for being creepy and criminal  and that is why some people and the police thought of him as a blight in the community and someone likely to commit a violent crime.

And what kind of crime might a sexually sadistic psychopath commit? Just about anything and, because Avery is quick to lose his temper and prone to violence and impulsiveness and sexual perversion, it is not a stretch to think that if Teresa Halbach caught his eye and he wanted to follow through with the fantasies he spoke of in prison of imprisoning a woman and doing what he wanted to her, he couldn't stand to miss the opportunity. He might even have thought that he was immune to future investigation because he had been victimized by the police system and now was being paraded around as a poster boy for wrongful conviction. He might have thought he was untouchable....a grandiose notion often featured in the psychopathic personality. That the crime didn't goes as planned or that disposing of the body and evidence was a bit more messed up than he thought it would be is not surprising....real life is not like a crime drama on TV and if you have any obvious connection to the victim or crime location and the police show up at your door, it is not as easy as all that to get away with rape and murder. The reason most serial rapists and serial killers go for so long without being caught (or go forever without being caught) is because they attack strangers in isolated locations so it is nearly impossible to figure out who the perpetrator is barring a lucky DNA match someday in the CODIS system.

As to Brendan Dassey, he is what we professionals call "a dumb shit." A "dumb shit" does not refer to IQ...it simply means that he is a guy - usually not an evil guy - but one who does stupid crimes because he makes foolish choices or participates in serious crimes because he is egged on by a stronger lawbreaker or a gang. He is the weak partner in a serial killer duo, the one who does what the mastermind says; he is a follower and needs the attention of the leader. Dumb shits often give confessions with little prodding. When they are separated from their leader and on their own, they are not exactly clever and tough. Avery can hold out till death proclaiming his innocence, but a dumb shit like Dassey will simply open his mouth with the smallest encouragement. While the interrogators of Dassey didn't do the best job I have ever seen and occasionally gave information and led Dassey, they did not coerce  his confession or terrify him into giving his statements. Dassey told of his experience over and over - even to his mother - and his description - while likely containing some errors - was pretty much the truth. Avery drew Dassey into a criminal act. I doubt Dassey would have committed such an act on his own but, being a follower, he followed. Dassey truly is not a very bright fellow - not mentally retarded - but certainly not very smart. I feel a bit sorry for him....I think he deserves to go to prison but maybe not for life; the first attorney the documentary villainized knew he was guilty and that he should go for a plea bargain because the evidence overwhelmingly supported the majority of his confession. Unfortunately, his mother intervened along with Avery's defense team and got him a new lawyer who then got him a life sentence.

Steven Avery, while also portrayed as slow upstairs, is no dummy. He may not be an intellectual or highly educated but he has some smarts; he knows when to shut his mouth. Too bad for him his defense team couldn't overcome the evidence with their story of the police trying to frame him. But, now he has a documentary team and they just might do a better job than his attorneys.


Part Three

Part One


Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

January 20, 2016

What Part Of "She's a Psychopath" Aren't You Getting?

I have been watching Mexican telenovelas (soap operas that last one season) so I can improve my Spanish. The newest one I have been viewing on a daily basis is "Rubi." The lead character, Rubi, is a beautiful young woman from the barrio (a poor area) who wants to escape poverty and be someone important in the world. She is sexy and very attractive and she uses her looks and wiles to find a man to save her from her life of economic struggles. She lives with her mother and her sister in a poor but friendly neighborhood, sharing a bedroom with the sister who works to put her through college. She is clearly a social climber and men fall easily for her. One could forgive her desire for wealth if only she weren't a complete psychopath....which a good number of people in the show seem not to realize. If this were real life, this would be no different....it is amazing how many people...especially family...do not realize when a psycho is in their midst, in spite of the many times the individual exhibits each and every psychopathic trait. Let's take a look at Rubi and see how many time we can put a checkmark next to the traits of a psychopath as listed by psychologist Robert Hare.

•  glib and superficial charm

Rubi is always smiling and flattering, clearly not being at all genuine.

•  grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self

Rubi not only believes she deserves more than the life of a low income Mexican, she wants to be filthy rich.

•  need for stimulation

Boy, does Rubi get bored! The day after her mother's funeral, she throws a party for 200 people in spite of the fact her husband says that the timing is totally inappropriate.

•  pathological lying

Rubi lies to pretty much everyone a good portion of the time in order to get what she wants.

•  cunning and manipulativeness

Rubi is always scheming. She pretended to be the best friend of a rich girl and then set up situations where she could come onto and steal her friend's fiancé. 

•  lack of remorse or guilt

Rubi slipped an expensive necklace into her sister's fiancé's shopping bag and got him arrested and imprisoned for five years. Even though she confessed to her mother (in a moment of spite) and her mother collapsed and died as a result, and even though her sister was pregnant, she refused to admit to her evildoing and get the man out of prison. In fact, she paid a lawyer to screw up the case, so he would be convicted. Ruby never showed a moment's remorse. 

•  shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)

When Rubi ruined two families (by stealing her best friend's fiancé) and cost her sister her job, she was only annoyed that her sister refused to continue paying her bills.

•  callousness and lack of empathy

Rubi calls her "best friend" who has a problem with her leg "the cripple" and "the limp."

•  parasitic lifestyle

Rubi's sister paid her school bills, her friend gave her clothes and jewelry (and her friend's father paid her school bills as well, but she never told her sister because she wanted to use the money for more clothes and jewelry), she married a rich man for money, and when he started losing his money, searched for the next wealthy man to take advantage of.

•  poor behavioral controls

Rubi does what she wants.

•  sexual promiscuity

Actually, Rubi was a bit controlled here because she used sex as a weapon and if she wasn't going to get rich through sex, she wouldn't waste her ammunition.

•  early behavior problems

Apparently, Rubi's mother suffered many years of hoping she would change.

•  lack of realistic long-term goals

Rubi supposedly fell in love (I say supposedly because I think the writer of this telenovela doesn't understand psychopathy) with a surgeon because she thought he was wealthy (he was living with a rich friend, the one she eventually married) but dumped him when she found out he came from a middle class family. Ruby couldn't seem to wait for him to move up in his profession which likely would have given them a fine lifestyle in the future; she wanted to be rich right away and so she only was willing to marry him when her husband's fortune being to wane and he had become a millionaire.

•  impulsivity

As soon as Rubi married, she demanded the largest of mansions, went on big shopping sprees, and wanted to travel and stay in the best hotels.

•  irresponsibility

Rubi rarely cared about the effects of her behaviors as long as she got what she wanted at that moment.

•  failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Rubi blamed everyone else for anything that went wrong and for all the bad things she did. She always blamed the victim.

•  many short-term marital relationships

Rubi had a short term love affair which ended when she found out the man wasn't rich and as soon as her husband got sick and lost income, she was scouting out a new provider.

•  juvenile delinquency

Rubi apparently did not commit crimes in her youth (at least that she was caught doing), but she committed crimes as an adult which she got away with.

So this is Rubi, an unquestionable psychopath. Her mother seemed to get the picture but held out hope for a miracle. Her sister decided to end their relationship after Rubi set her fiancé up and got him imprisoned. Her husband seemed to have no clue in spite of all the bad things she would do and the lies she clearly told. Her surgeon boyfriend seemed to understand she was pretty evil but kept letting her get under his skin and revving up his emotions for her. A good number of others around her didn't trust her but they often still allowed her in their houses or social circle. Her fashion designer friend seemed to recognize her psychopathy when he said, "She is as beautiful as she is evil," but he hung around with her because she amused him. I am not sure how this all ends up as I am only on episode 68 of 115! But, I am hoping Rubi gets her just desserts in the end.

Although much is exaggerated in this telenovela, Rubi's behavior are red flags for psychopathy and in real life, people often see red flags from the psychopaths they are dealing with but fail to accept the label or the fact that they are dangerous or people they should completely cut off. That lack of willingness to see reality often sets innocent people up as victims of these psychopaths....they lose their money, their freedom, their children, and, sometimes, their lives.

If you have someone like Rubi in your life, take heed....run, run, run, and don't let them ruin your life.

Pat Brown

Criminal Profiler

September 23, 2015

Understand Psychopaths or be Victimized by Them

From mass murderers to women helping felons to escape prison to people lying about their race, psychopaths all have something in common; the same motive for what they do. Since so few people understand psychopathy, few understand the true motivation behind their actions.

In just the span of a couple of weeks, three stories are being heavily debated in the news and on the Internet: why Joyce Mitchell helped two murderers escape prison, why Rachel Dolezal claimed she is black when she is actually white, and why a mass murderer would kill  a bunch of innocent folks attending church.

The three main answers people seem to want to settle on is 1) Mitchell fell in love with one of the prisoners and her emotions led her astray, 2) Rachel Dolezal so identified with her black adopted siblings, she felt as black as them, and 3) racism caused a young man to become a killer.

None of the above is actually true; the real answer is all three thought what they did was fun.

"What? Fun?" You exclaim in disbelief and hundreds of psychiatrists will roll their eyes and charge me with practicing mental health without a license or a clue. They will claim I am tossing out some one-size-fits-all motive and ignoring all the complicated psychological issues that cause behavior.

Let me explain. Yes, all three of these human beings have complicated issues that CAUSED them to become psychopaths. From that point on, they are motivated by the thrill their behavior gives them. The love the attention they get through their manipulations, lies, and actions. They love the power and control they get from getting over on others. To put it simply, what they do is fun for them.

Mitchell wanted to play Bonnie to her Clydes. She had fun befriending dangerous men, having sex with them, fooling her husband, and then planning a masterful escape. Soon you will see her having fun manipulating people in prison or on the Internet through inmate dating sites or a Free Joyce Mitchell group of people who think she was the victim of manipulation by men.  Rachel Dolezal had fun convincing people of something that was not true, she had fun playing the victim, and now she is having fun on television. If people stopped giving credibility to Dolezal's claims, she would disappear.

All mass murderers find it fun to kill people, that is their real motive. They are not actually getting back at bullies, starting a race war, or killing for Allah; they are killing for fun and the thrill they get when they pull the trigger, and, more importantly, the thrill of becoming famous. It all is so much fun, so much more fun than being a normal person, telling the truth, and slogging away at a normal job and being just a regular Joe. If we recognized this, especially the media, then we would be adamant that the media stop giving glory and fame to mass murderers because that is exactly what they want. Stop their fun and you take away motive for their crime. We might still have some mass murderers who want the thrill of the moment when they drop a person, but, the bigger motivation of fame would be gone; we would see the numbers of mass murders decline substantially.

People find it difficult to accept that a person who commits horrific crimes is just a psychopath just having fun; it seems so incredibly shallow, so pointless, that an individual would kill or ruin peoples' lives on a whim. But, yes, that is exactly the point; psychopaths ARE shallow people; they don't really care much about anything or anyone. They may quote religion, but, in reality don't care all that much about it; they may state they are fighting some race war or fighting back against some group, but, in reality it isn't about any issue, it is only about them getting attention and the cheap thrill of power. They want to have fun and you are how they are going to get it. You are just fodder, meaningless fodder. Rachel Dolezal has had fun for years with her crimes of lies and deception and people continue to fall for her manipulations and so she is still having fun. Be on the watch for her reality show or her bestselling book! While we waste our time thinking there is something to figure out about Dolezal and race, she is just having fun hoodwinking us.

The other difficulty people have with accepting people are psychopaths is also accepting that there is nothing that one can do about it. You can't change a psychopath; they remain one for life. There is no therapy and, for psychiatrists, that is an income killer and an affront to the entire concept of helping people regain mental health. Kind of a buzz killer.

Anyone who has truly been the victim of a psychopath over a long period of time will be nodding their head at my words; they will totally get it, totally. But, for the rest of the population, psychopathy makes no sense, it cannot be, there must be a better explanation, be more complicated and more "fixable." It simply is too frustrating to think these zombielike people are among us and can strike out and hurt us at will and simply because they find it fun.

But, that's the way it is. All we can do is recognize it and do whatever we can to stop psychopaths from inflicting so much damage on us. But, our refusal to recognize psychopathy, especially the refusal of psychiatrists to recognize psychopathy, puts us all in harm's way and we need to open our eyes to the truth of this horrific personality disorder and deal with it. 

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Mass Murderer or Terrorist - An Important Distinction

This post comes with no pictures and no links. I simply want to get across the point that a mass murderer is different than a terrorist and we shouldn't confuse the labels.

Mass murderer - a disgruntled, angry psychopath or borderline personality disordered individual who hates everyone in the world and picks a group to target that a)  justifies his crime, b) is a fishbowl he feels comfortable committing the crime in,  and c) gets a lot of media publicity for himself.

Terrorist -  a disgruntled, angry psychopath or borderline personality disordered individual who is a) in the employ of a terrorist organization who selects the target for political reasons and the impact of the terrorist attack on the political issue, b) is sent on an assignment to kill, and c) gets a lot of media publicity for the cause.

Mislabeling mass murderers as terrorists encourages misdirected animosity between groups of people when the anger should be only targeted toward the individual and the development of psychopathy in society.

Examples of mass murder:

Oklahoma City - mass murderers 
Columbine - mass murderers
Virginia Tech - mass murderer
Fort Hood - mass murderer
Norway - mass murderer
Aurora, Colorado - mass murderer
Wisconsin Sikh temple - mass murderer


Examples of terrorism:

Ku Klux Klan - terrorism by Christian fanatics
9/11 - terrorism by Muslim fanatics
1985 bombing of Air India plane (Canada) -   terrorism by Sikh fanatics
2007 Ajmer Dargah blast  - terrorism believed to be enacted by Hindu fanatics


Let's put the proper label on the proper psychopath: it will help us not foment hatred for no reason and also help us understand what exact issues we should be focusing on to prevent future attacks. If we are dealing with mass murder, we need to focus on the development of psychopaths in middle class America and if we are dealing with terrorism we need to focus on where and why terrorists organizations are developing, how they are being funded, and how they are recruiting. For both types of killings, we need to know how to identify the individuals and their intent to kill before the crime is enacted and to develop the best methods to prevent and stop such killings.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

August 5, 2012

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: My Anti-Fan-Fiction of Fifty Shades of Grey: When Christian killed Ana

Out on August 15, 2012

SAVE THE LIFE OF A YOUNG WOMAN - Link this post to any place young women go on the Internet who think Fifty Shades of Grey is a romance, that the exact type of guy we warn young women to run from is somehow now cool, exciting, and will change if you just love and understand him. The kind of man Christian Grey is, a serial sex predator, will get you abused, stalked, and killed. Women every day are filing restraining orders against this kind of controlling obsessive sadistic psychopath and a good many of them find themselves with gas thrown at them and set on fire, disappearing down mine shafts, and shot dead on the courthouse steps. Fifty Shades of Grey is one of the most dangerous pieces of fiction to get into the hands of young women that I have even seen. Make sure they read the story below to get the real ending of Fifty Shades of Grey which would never have made it to a trilogy if it were anywhere close to the truth. - Criminal Profiler Pat Brown


When Christian Killed Ana


Christian gazes down at me from above, my hands tied behind my head to the bed rail with that grey tie of his, my ankles bound with rope to the side rails at the foot. His expression is unreadable but as my eyes shift from his face to his chest and then to those jeans of his hanging deliciously off his hips, my inner goddess jumps for joy; heat rushes down there and I squirm desperately as I wait for Christian to touch me. Oh, shit, he is so hot.

He runs his hands through that slightly tousled hair of his.

"I'm bored with you, Ana," he says quietly.

I am stunned. How can he be bored with me? I have done everything he wanted, minus a few items I put a line through on the contract.

"But we have only been together a couple of months, Sir!" I had thought I was different then the train of other women he had been through. "I thought I was special."

Christian actually laughs. "Special? What would you think I would find so special about you?" He admonishes me. "You are a mildly attractive run-of-the-mill college girl with nothing particularly alluring or interesting about you."

Tears flood my eyes. "But, Sir, you said I was special, different, that you had never had vanilla sex or slept the night with anyone but me!"

"And you believed me, you little fool." He smirks. "Why don't you bite your lower lip again? You really think that drives me mad for you, don't you? It doesn't do anything but make me hate you." He reaches out out with both hands and grabs my nipples, twisting them cruelly. I yelp with pain.

Christian looks at me with disdain. "You don't think I have told each one of my girls how adorable they are? Don't you realize I told every one the same stupid things that I told you? You are all so easy to dupe." He sighs. "All of you who think you are going to be the one. You are going to change me. From what? From myself? I like myself just the way I am." He leans in and snickers. "Do you know, my dear Anastasia, that I was never abused as a child? Not once. But, oh, how easy it was to make you feel so sorry for me."

My inner goddess curls up into a ball. I feel sweat break out on my forehead. Panic starts rising in my chest. I look into the eyes of Christian Grey and see nothing there at all, nothing. Everything I thought he might have been has vanished and I realize I have been living in a dream. Reality hits. I am tied up, hand and foot, alone with a sadistic psychopath, a snake, a demon.

Christian's face appears inches away from mine behind my wall of tears. "You know all those things that weren't in the contract? Well, today you get to do them all." He smiles, so coldly, so evilly. "I am going to use you as my toilet, I am going to put my fist up your ass, I am going to whip you until your body is covered with marks and listen to you scream until you have no voice left to scream with."

He leers at me and suddenly he is holding a razor sharp knife against my cheek. I feel searing pain and he pulls the blade back, red with my blood, oh god, my blood, my blood, and he licks it off with that tongue that I used to adore.

"I am going to cut that annoying bottom lip off of you."

I start screaming uncontrollably and the hell begins. I am just a young girl and I thought I had my whole life ahead of me. I now know that I have never known true love nor had anyone actually make love to me.Why I ever thought I should be treated in such a demeaning and ugly manner, I do not know. All I know is that now I have no choice; then I did. I should have run; I should never have trusted a stranger, a stalker, a sadist who told me he was so taken by me that he would never hurt me. How stupid I was.

I will not tell you each and everything that happened that day, the hours of terror, the hours of humiliation, the hours of unending pain. I will just tell you what I see from above my body, well, above the pieces of my body. My bottom lip that I always bit, he cut that off first. It was then I knew for sure I was going to die. Next he removed my breasts and then he put them to his chest and danced around with them while I gazed down at the gaping holes on my own body. I cannot go on and tell you what he did next, but when I felt the knife cut through my throat, I wished I had valued myself a whole lot more than I did the day I met that psycho Christian Grey.

He is now placing my legs and arms in a suitcase. What is left of my body, a torso is what I believe they call it, is lying in the center of the bed. I am not tied up anymore, I note ironically. My head, yes, that is my head with the bottom lip missing and the eyes gone from their sockets, it is laying where it was tossed, in the corner of the room, like an old soccer ball with some of the air missing from it.

Christian finishes packing up my parts and he takes them from the room. I see him drive off in his car, and when he returns a bit later, he showers and dresses, immaculately as always. He leaves again in his fine automobile and I follow him down the street. He pulls into an upscale pub and glides over to the marble bar. He seats himself next to a pretty blonde, college age. She turns her head and I can see she is immediately attracted to him.

"I'm Christian," he says softly and he takes her hand. She does not pull it back. I cannot watch any more.


Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

June 16, 2012

Pat Brown’s ONLY THE TRUTH

Harkening back to the writing styles of the earlier American authors – John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, and Carson McCullers, "Only the Truth" is a story of soul searching, a psychological mystery which examines the question, “Whom should one love and when should one quit doing so?” Billy Ray, a lonely and rather slow, uneducated African-American man living in the mountains of Arkansas, runs across a mysterious young woman at the railroad tracks. She asks to go home with him and Billy Ray takes her with him as she requests. He comes to love this woman, Charlene, unconditionally. She is the only woman he has ever loved, and life is finally good for Billy Ray. Then Charlene shoots the neighbor and burns down the neighbor’s house. His happy life destroyed, a confused and devastated Billy Ray is at a loss. Is the woman he loves “just a troubled girl” or a psychopathic killer? Billy Ray sets out on a quest to find the truth, only the truth, whether it leads him to be able to save Charlene from a death sentence or it frees him from her spell.

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day? What is Someone Capable Of?

There is an ongoing debate among people following the Haleigh Cummings murder as to what Ronald Cummings is capable of. Some think he is manipulated by Misty Croslin, his ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, maybe still girlfriend, drug dealing associate --- and that while he talked a tough game about killing those who "stole his daughter", he is really just a blowheart, a wannabe bully. Others think he is quite capable of violence.

In the comment section of my last blog post, Linda Parris pointed out some of the threats Ron has made toward other people. She offered these examples:


"Hank Croslin Jr., Misty Cummings brother, told deputies that one of his neighbors saw Ron Cummings put something (it was a decapitated rat) in his mailbox around midnight." "Cummings allegedly told him that he would “get back” at him. He said that Ron owned guns and he feared the dead rat was a sign that Cummings was going to kill him. Croslin told the deputies that he wanted charges filed."

And it has been reported by Tim Miller that Ron said he would "blow the teeth out of the back of Misty's head" if she betrayed him.

Now, let's think about that last ideation; Ronald is visualizing picking up a shotgun, aiming it at Misty, and blowing her head off. So? Haven't we all at one time or another visualized doing something to someone but know we would never do it?

Actually, this is not really true. We have a hard time visualizing anything which is not within our psyche to carry out under some circumstance or other.

For example, would you be willing to shoot somebody? If I think about that question myself (and I do own two weapons, a 9mm and a 38 that I keep for protection), I can say, yes, I can actually see myself pulling the trigger. I have run that fantasy through my head. Do I visualize shooting my ex because he ticked me off? No, that has never crossed my mind and it creeps me out to even force myself to bring up such a thought; I simply can't even put myself in this scenario with a gun, not even as a threat of some sort, not even brought along with me to some location he might be at.

Can I visualize going after someone who is harassing and stalking me and threatening them with a pointed gun and telling them to stop? No. I can't bring the picture up.

BUT, I can bring up two scenarios in which I can actually see myself, like a video on my television set, pulling out my gun and blasting away until my target is dead, dead, dead. One scenario involves waking up in the night and seeing a rapist breaking through my bedroom door. I see myself grabbing the gun and firing every round into him until he is no longer a threat. The other scenario involves a rapist attacking my child. Same action taken; I shoot until he is dead, dead, dead.

In an exercise I use in training, I ask people to imagine what they would do if they came home and find their significant other having sex with someone else in their bed. After an initial stubbornness to tell anyone what they think, they finally give up their imagined action. Some say they would just turn and walk away. Some say they would scream insanely at the two of them. Some say they would throw things. Some say they would punch out their mate but leave the lover alone. Some say they would shoot them. And my guess is they might well carry out what they visualize unless fear of going to jail or some strong self-control mechanism kicks in and says, "Don't do it."

So, if Ronald did say he would blow away Misty if she screwed him over and intimated he would cut the head off of Tommy if he ratted him out, I would believe him.

If you have a spouse, boyfriend or a girlfriend, a coworker or family member that expresses some violent ideation, take them seriously. They may never carry it out if they don't get overwhelmed with failure or have a serious affront to their ego, but , if they do, you may find them standing in front of you with a weapon and totally willing to pull their index finger back..

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: So My Wife Died Today, What's your Point?

One of the most amusing and condemning traits of the psychopath is having such shallow emotions that he has no clue what normal people act like under tragic circumstances(read: my wife just died).

Take the case of Gabe Watson, whose wife drowned while they were scuba diving on their honeymoon in Australia. He made the comment, "This sucks," while he was playing cards with his friends later that same day. It is unclear whether he was talking about his wife dying or the poker hand he had just been dealt.

Apparently, he didn't do so well either with the story as to how his wife had this bad scuba accident. An experienced rescue diver, he is last seen giving his wife a bear hug 15 meters under the water after which she is seen sinking straight towards the bottom of the ocean while he swims off in another direction.

"Ah, she weighed too much so I couldn't hold on to her," (in the weightlessness of water?), "My eardrum ruptured," (suffer the pain or let the wife die....easy choice...of course, his eardrum repaired itself within seconds of surfacing), and "My wife knocked my mask off and I had to get away from her because she might get me drowned."


If these three stories weren't enough, Watdon had thirteen MORE versions! For a likely premeditated crime, Watson sure didn't settle on one good explanation. Or, maybe he did, but when he gave the first one, everyone looked at him funny and he realized he hadn't picked the best scenario. So he tried again, and again, and again. Psychopaths don't seem to recognize that people actually remember what you said five minutes ago and changing your story doesn't erase the lie you just told.

At any rate, his sixteen stories and card playing grieving wasn't enough evidence to get the Queensland coroner to label the manner of death a homicide. It took five long years for the light bulb to finally come on and Gabe Watson is just now being charged with his wife Tina's murder. From the comfort of his armchair in good ol' Alabama, with his newer and still alive wife by his side, he got the long belated news.

I wonder what stories he is going to tell Wife Number Two. I am sure he will at least say, "This sucks," only he might simply be talking about his beer which had gotten warm while he was distracted by arrival of the coroner's decision.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Narcissism Increasing the World Over

I just came back from a three week trip to India and while in New Delhi I gave a presentation on criminal profiling and its usefulness to investigations within the country. Psychopathy, I discovered, is on the rise and all one has to do is read the The Times of India to find out how bad it has gotten.

April 1 - Father bludgeons son to death when the latter resists his sexual advances towards his wife

April 6 - Drunkard gambler kills wife to clear off debt

April 7 - Businessman gets brother-in-law killed over Rs 300 crore worth of property

April 14 - Schoolteacher kills seven members of her own family who objected to her affair

April 18 - Son suspect father of having affair with his wife. Hacks wife and kids.

April 18 - Executive kills his adopted parents and pregnant wife. He was having an affair.

Frightening, isn't it? Indian sociologist Ravider Kaur notes that there is an increase in individualization of self: that individuals don't wish to be controlled by family. In other words, narcissism is rising within India and instead of cooperating with society and family, more people are simply killing off those who don't go along with their program.

Why is the self-centeredness becoming such a problem? Where does it come from? What is changing the world over that we should see so many people become victims because someone in their life objects to their existence?

One possibility is a change in attitude toward entitlement and expectations. The is an increased number of people one have very high desires and thinks other should give them what they want (or get out of their way if they are blocking their goals). If they fail to achieve their goals and quickly, they rage against society and any part of it they feel has a part in their failure.

It would be an interesting cross-cultural study to see how psychopathy is gaining inroads in other country. Meanwhile, I have joined forces with the Academy of Investigation and Intelligence Management in New Delhi to train detectives because there is surely going to be a big need to criminal profiling as the violent crime rate rises.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Are You with a Psychopath?

Stephen Grant has confessed to murdering his wife, Tara. The man who said he has no conscience turns out to be the one who did his wife in. What a surprise! (not) This sad ending to Tara Lynn Grant should be a warning to all those young women or men out there planning to marry someone with concerning behaviors, behaviors they should not be ignoring or minimizing. Just because a person is capable of keeping a job, telling a joke, saying "I love you" and doing other sorts of seemingly normal behaviors does not mean he or she is a mentally healthy human being. This person without a third eye or a horns protruding may be a psychopath playing a role, the role of a boyfriend or girlfriend, a husband or wife, or a father or mother. The key phrase here is "playing a role" as one cannot actually act the part twenty-four hours a day. There are those moments when a psychopath forgets to be on stage and acts like his or her true self. Stephen Grant is a good example of this. In the beginning when this story hit the news, we heard the usual shocked statements by people who knew him. "I can't believe he would do this!" and "We never saw him as a danger." But, as usual when as the shock wears off and people who knew him actually start reflecting on the creep's past behaviors, they start to admit the signs of psychopathy were there, if only they had known they were psychopathic signs and had not denied their importance. How much heartache could have been prevented if Tara or her family and friends had seen Stephen Grant for what he was early on.

So, to all of you in relationships out there who are considering making them a permanent part of your lives, ask yourself, "Does this person do or say things that are inappropriate? Does this person lie to me or tell me questionable stories? Does he or she have grandiose thinking, either glorifying past events that never really happened or have big plans for the future that never are implemented? Does this person have problems in relationships with others, blaming them for all kinds of issues that have cropped up? Does he or she have problems with employment, getting fired or working in jobs that are obviously below his or her abilities? Is this person you are thinking of marrying actually a manipulative, self-centered person who actually is not all that well-liked by others? Have people ask why you are with this person and if they point out their concerns, do you defend him 0r her and justify each one of their questionable behaviors? If this sounds like you, spend a little extra time reading up on psychopaths and when you realize this is the type of person who you are hanging around with, run, run quickly before you end up in pieces on the garage floor like poor Tara Lynn Grant. Don't be so desperate to have someone in your life that you end up losing your life in the process.

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: How to Get Labeled a Psychopath

Sometimes when I am doing crime commentary on one of the network news shows, the host will toss out, “So you are a criminal profiler, Pat Brown, what kind of guy do you think this is?” I am being asked to label a person of interest in psychological terms based on his behaviors and at times I have identified that individual as a psychopath. In fact, I have been accused by some of tossing this label out awfully quickly without the benefit of doing a clinical analysis. These critics would be right. I have made a determination in a matter of minutes. But, truthfully folks, sometimes it doesn’t take that long to figure out what kind of character we are dealing with. Take the case of missing Michigan wife, Tara Lynn Grant, who disappeared on February 9, 2007. Her husband, Steven Grant, claims his wife returned from a business trip that day and then around 11 PM that evening, he overheard her talk to someone on the telephone and then he sees her walk out of the house and get in a dark-colored sedan. She hasn't been heard from since.

Steve Grant doesn’t bother to report his beloved wife and mother of his two young children missing for five days. He claims he wasn’t worried. He figured she would show back up. Meanwhile, he has been spending time emailing an ex-girlfriend and saying how he would like her to give him a sponge bath and do a naked modeling session with him. During those emails he notes how he “doesn’t care about being married” probably due to “that no conscience thing” he has and how marriage is like speed limits; meant to be broken and the only issue is to not get caught.

The police check into that phone call his wife supposedly made and to no one’s surprise neither her cell phone or home phone records have any phone call made at the time hubby claims he overheard her conversation. Since Tara disappeared, her cell phone and credit cards remain unused. Meanwhile, Grant refuses to turn over the home computer because he probably has a lot of incriminating behavioral evidence (I am guessing lots of pornography and emails as he was likely trolling the net for sex - the stuff he wrote to the ex-girlfriend is predator language).

So, while this criminal profiler cannot say Steve Grant is a psychopath, I will copy the language style of the Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel who said Grant isn’t a suspect but his behavior is “suspect.” Steven Grant may not be a psychopath but he sure behaves like a psychopath. He claims he has no conscious which is a hallmark of psychopathy, he doesn’t care if he breaks rules, he lies, he manipulates, and he has a lack of affect and a lack of empathy, all more signs of being a psychopath. So, if Steve Grant isn’t a psychopath, he is doing a fine job imitating the behaviors of one. Grant is whining that he is being over focused on as a suspect in his wife’s disappearance. Well, tough luck, Steve. If you don’t want to be a suspect in a crime, don’t act so suspicious. Oh, wait, I forgot. Blaming others is yet another behavior of a psychopath. Keep racking ‘em up, Steven!