Serials, Signatures & Psychos
Later that evening Mrs. Dance drove
Kelly and the twins to Kelly’s ballet practice where the trio met up with Cadet
Jim Connors. Jim graciously offered to drive the Dance youths home after
practice and Mrs. Dance happily accepted his offer. She had some errands and
shopping to do, anyway.
Once Kelly and her friend Lindsey
began practice, Jim, Robert and Rebecca delved into the realm of the criminal
mind and various types of law enforcement techniques.
“How are things going at the police
academy, Jim?” inquired Rebecca. She was very curious about the happenings and
such that go on at a police training center.
Jim Connors explained that he was
part of a special program that allowed him to attend the police academy and
also work as a cadet at the police station in his spare time. Normally, a cadet
was between the ages of eighteen to twenty-three and only worked at the police
station. Jim continued explaining, “A person must pass a thorough background
check, physical agility testing, medical, and psychological and polygraph
examinations, etc. Then, once they have decided if this is the career avenue
they wish to pursue, they can apply for a position as an officer. The
successful candidate will then attend the police academy.”
The Dance youths remained mesmerized
as he added, “This past week was exciting. We started to study criminal
profiling, a bit of forensic and standard psychology as it relates to those who
commit crimes, profiles, motives, intent, etc.; the differences between spree
killers, serial killers and mass murderers,” Jim took a long breath,
“arsonists, burglars, robbers, well, it seems that the world of crime has
endless boundaries when it comes to the types of criminals we have out there
and the variety of their nefarious purposes.”
“That does sound interesting,”
commented Robert, leaning forward to make sure he did not miss a word of their
conversation.
“I read that there are seven basic
motives for arson,” Rebecca added, “pyromania; the mischief of kids playing with
fire; political reasons; citizens during chaotic times of unrest; fraud to get
money from an insurance company or someplace else; to conceal another crime; or
to get even with someone or some business.”
“Wow,” Cadet Connors replied, “That
sounds about right. I have only breezed over that section so far. We will be
studying that in about a week or so, but I am impressed with what you already
know. It shows you have an analytical mind, Rebecca.”
“She sure does,” Robert stated, “and
it comes in handy sometimes.”
Rebecca continued, “I have also read
that most violent criminals have two distinct inner feelings present inside of
them that sort of war against each other.”
“Yes, that is correct. On the one
side they feel that they are above the law and are superior to everyone else;
on the other side they struggle with feelings of being inadequate and believing
that they are just simple losers in life,” responded Jim.
“So, I bet they are unwilling to
study, work hard and put in a lot of effort when they do almost anything normal
and probably feel like they don’t need to work their way up to the top,”
surmised Robert.
“Yes, most criminals lack two key
ingredients to being a continuing success in their endeavors,” Jim said,
glancing around the dance studio, “They lack discipline and patience. They
don’t possess the discipline to follow through and complete anything to a high
standard and they don’t have the patience persistence demands to achieve their
goals.”
“That could be why they feel the
need to get revenge so quickly sometimes,” Robert interjected, “because the
criminal doesn’t have the discipline over their emotions to wait and plan
things out. They only know how to react, sort of like a lot of wild animals
do.”
“Growl!” Rebecca jested.
“Ha, ha,” Robert replied.
Jim explained, “A key thing to
remember is that ‘Why’ + ‘How’ = ‘Who’ in profiling. If you can discover why
the crime was committed and how it was done, the methods, modes and means, you
can narrow down the suspects and get a clear lead as to who may have committed
that particular crime.”
“The ‘how’ is sometimes called the
‘signature’ of the person, I believe,” said Rebecca.
“Yes, the signature can lead us to
who it was,” Jim continued, “It is a sort of style the person has, or lack of
it in some cases, something unique about the crime that is specific to that
particular criminal.”
Robert added, “Like different actors
have different styles of acting.”
“It can be complex at times I am
sure, Jim,” said Rebecca.
“What else are you learning?” Robert
questioned the cadet.
“We are also discussing in class the
triggers that set off some of these criminals. It is very common that we find
something has happened in their lives within the past few weeks or months that
pressured the individual to commit a violent crime. Some type of social,
psychological or other pressure.”
“The fuse was there, it just needed
to be lit to go off,” commented Rebecca.
“Exactly, there was something
unstable about the person in the first place, something that the average person
could most likely deal with, but the criminal gets pushed over the edge when
the same thing happens to them.”
“Did you read about any examples?”
asked Robert.
“We looked at quite a few, all of us
were astounded at how similar the lifestyles, actions and attitudes were of
some of these criminals.”
“Many of them have experienced
horrible childhoods,” Rebecca added, with concern.
“Yes, that is very sad. I think the
real challenge lies in figuring out how to identify individuals during their
youth and discovering effective means to help them before they develop into
dangerous criminals.”
“I am sure that would be ideal, but
it is probably next to impossible to identify every troubled kid in our
society, especially when, in certain instances, it is an abusive teacher, camp
counselor, family relative, or family friend who effected these kids in a
negative way,” commented Robert.
“That reminds me,” Jim said, “The
famous Bay Area serial killer, Zodiac, it is unfortunate that we didn’t have
today’s crime lab abilities back then.”
“There were quite a few suspects,
but never enough evidence to actually charge anyone with the crimes,” responded
Rebecca.
Jim agreed, “That is a problem
police face, when multiple suspects fit the profile for the same crime, but the
evidence available doesn’t fit the suspects.”
“Were there any Key suspects?”
Robert asked.
“A couple of them did stand out,”
Jim responded, “movies have been made, books written, television shows aired,
it goes on and on and still the case remains unsolved.”
“Has your class done a profile on
this case and the suspects?” Robert questioned the cadet.
“Only a very quick practice one to
show how difficult it can be when you don’t have enough information to work
with.”
“And?” Rebecca questioned, wondering
if Jim would ever finish, or would just leave them curiously wondering what his
class came up with in their profiling endeavor.
Jim continued, “Each of the cadets
had a certain aspect to speculate upon with our specific suspect. Mine was
childhood problems, hypothetical, of course. The killer left two male victims
alive and, allegedly, focused on them first before killing the females who
accompanied them. So his rage may have been centered on females in general. One
suspect may even have been ambidextrous, or at least grew up as a left-handed
person in the days when you were forced to write with your right hand in
school. So, I used that area, because,” he took a deep breath, then continued,
“if you could look back into their life and find a young female teacher who
forced this person to write with their opposite hand, you may have the initial
foundation for the development of their troubled life. If you add a parent, a
mother for instance, who in those days would have done whatever the school
required without question, you add a second insurmountable object in this
person’s life.”
“Sounds like you did a pretty
thoughtful synopsis,” commented Rebecca.
“The damage would have been done to
this person in their formative years. Later in life, when schools adjusted and
recognized left-handed children and allowed them to live naturally that way, it
could provide a sort of trigger in the person, something that ate away at them
inside and made them feel like they were treated unfairly.”
“They would also have felt singled
out,” added Robert, “because they probably felt they were the only person in
school being treated that way.”
“Exactly,” Jim replied, “and, I
speculated a bit further in the paper I wrote, many ambidextrous people write
completely different with their two hands. So, you could have totally different
styles of writing from the same individual.”
“If the person also suffered from a
multiple personality disorder, they may even have a number of different writing
styles, I suppose,” surmised Rebecca.
“Studies show exactly that,
Rebecca,” Jim replied, “and we all write differently at different times in our
lives, even in a regular day.”
“That could lead to a major
problem with trying to do any handwriting analysis,” says Robert.
“It does and I am sure it did back
then also,” Jim continued, “In court a criminal was convicted based on the fact
that his written confession was solely authored by him and not altered by the
police.”
Robert inquired to clarify, “So, the
defense counsel attempted to claim that two styles of writing in the person’s confession
meant two separate authors?”
“They did. But due to the many
problems associated with the analysis practice, reasonable doubt in that
pseudo-science led to the person’s conviction.”
“Ha,” Robert laughed, “It was
probably the first time that reasonable doubt convicted a criminal rather than
let them walk away free.”
Rebecca interjected, “I have read
that criminals leave clues to their identity sometimes.”
Jim replied, “What seemed so clear
to the criminal may not appear clear at all to those examining the clue or
clues left behind.”
“Hidden messages, where have we
experienced something like that?” Robert smiled, as each of them thought for a
moment about the secret code they had just deciphered.
Rebecca reflected, “The Zodiac may
have left a clue when he committed the crime in San Francisco, the cab driver
murder.”
“Go on,” Jim encouraged.
“The perpetrator was dropped off one
block from the destination where he was supposed to be let off, I think.”
“Yes,” answered Jim, “Police thought
that there may have been people around his original drop off point, so he had
the taxi driver take him one more block.”
“But what if that was a clue?”
Rebecca surmised, “And he knew that police would check all records and learn
that he was one block off from his original destination. If he did that on
purpose there could be some vital clue in that action, or even a hidden message.
Of course, it must be like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“That is a good thought and would be
a good line to follow up on,” Jim responded, “Keep thinking and analyzing
things like that and one day you will make an excellent investigator.”
Rebecca asserted, “I plan on it.”
“It must be getting late,” Jim said,
glancing down at his watch to check the time, “It looks like they are skipping
the break for the class tonight.”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you guys,”
Robert said, remembering he was supposed to relay some important information,
“Practice will be over a bit early tonight, so they won’t have a break.”
“Thanks for telling us,” Rebecca
responded, “and in such a timely manner.”
“Sorry.”
Once ballet practice had ended,
Cadet Connors drove the Dance children home. They all agreed on how exciting
and stimulating the evening’s conversation was and hoped that they could
continue again sometime.
Robert announced, “We’re home,” as
he entered the front door and saw his parents sitting on the couch.
“How did practice go?” Mrs. Dance
asked, noticing that it is a bit early for them to be home.
“Great, mom,” Kelly replied, “We
didn’t have a break tonight, so we are finished a bit early. The instructor
told us that we will perform our ‘Variation’ sometime between Thanksgiving and
Christmas.”
“Wonderful!” mom responded. She
looked forward to enjoying her daughter’s upcoming solo ballet performance.
The kids sat down, fatigued from the
weekend’s adventures.
“We all probably need some rest
after such a busy weekend,” Mr. Dance commented, hinting that they may want to
go to bed early.
“We sure had a fun weekend,”
Kelly said.
Rebecca added, “We will have to do
it again sometime.”
“We will, we must,” commanded Kelly.
“How was your evening with Cadet
Connors,” dad asked the twins.
Rebecca responded first, “It was
fantastic! We talked about profiling, forensic psychology, serial killers,
spree killers, mass murderers and even the Zodiac Killer.”
“I hope you don’t have nightmares,”
mom commented, provocatively.
“Nightmares?” Rebecca replied to her
worried mother, “More like dreams for the future,”
“What?” their puzzled mother
questioned.
“Careers, employment options, you
know, dreams like that.”
“Ok, I was a bit worried for a
minute. Not really, I was just joking with you.”
Robert commented, “Cadet Connors
really learns fast.”
“If you are serious about something
and have a passion for it, you generally learn much faster and also retain what
you have learned more easily,” Mr. Dance informed the twins.
“That makes sense,” Robert
commented, “I always remember what I enjoy in more detail than what I don’t
like.”
“Have you heard from Uncle Jim?”
Rebecca inquired. She was very curious about how her uncle and Suzie Chow got
along.
“He called me today to say he had a
wonderful time at the picnic yesterday.”
“And?” Rebecca impatiently asked.
“She wants to know about Uncle Jim
and Suzie,” Robert explained, spelling it out for his parents more clearly.
“Oh, yes, they seem to be hitting it
off very well. Suzie told me at work that her parents really like your Uncle
Jim a lot.”
Rebecca said, “Romance!” as she
turned her head a bit and moved sideways.
“Girls,” Robert responded, “Girls!”
Next Chapter
Chapter Seventeen: Ceramics & Celebrants
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