The existence of criminals who killed repeatedly and compulsorily has been known since Homer’s days, but officially the serial killer figure has existed since Robert K. Ressler gave him the name in 1977. Through its investigations and interrogations, the FBI revolutionized criminology by discovering the minds and motivations of some of the most famous killers of the last century, and later traveled the world as a special counsel. Meanwhile, the writer collaborated on the design of Hannibal Lecter, a key character of Thomas Harris, and inspired one of the protagonists of Roberto Bolaño’s monumental novel 2666; Moreover, the Mindhunter series recreated his successes as a federal agent long after he detailed it in the pages of the best-selling He Fighting Monsters (1992). His book titled Inside the Beast, which he later published as a sequel and published in Spain in 2003, was re-published by Alba Editorial.
It compiles the conclusions Ressler drew from the cases he worked on after leaving the police, which confronted him with particularly gruesome forms of immorality. Its pages describe crime scenarios, explain murder patterns and methods, and penetrate the minds of the perpetrators in search of the emotions that drive them to continue killing. They’re full of hideous details unsuitable for sensitive stomachs, and plenty of evidence of both the wit of their authors and their disposition to display it to the reader.
Inside the Beast says that serial murder, understood as a social phenomenon, emerged nearly 150 years ago, largely as a result of the global interconnections created by the media, the blurring of cultural distinctions, and the growing alienation of the individual. “What eclipses the United States, which is probably the most ‘advanced’ country in terms of this type of violence, extends to less developed countries such as Britain, Japan, the former Soviet Union, other high-tech countries, and even South Africa. Ressler. “The same action movies and television shows, the same phones and other technological equipment, and often the same pornographic material, highlight the similarity of the darker aspects of intertwined cultures, the aspects they seem to embody. The seeds of violence”.
The book paints a very clear profile of the prototype serial killer. It is about a grown man who suffers from an annoying sex life, is emotionally or physically abused, and tends to masturbate where he kills, preferably using a knife to do so. Serial killers are lonely people, cruel to animals, and control freaks who fantasize about corpses. They live in urban environments because big cities are full of easy prey such as prostitutes, runaway teenagers, drug addicts, lone singles, and “the killer’s opportunities to blend in, hide, and remain anonymous.”
Ressler concludes that there is no effective treatment for these people. “There is no possibility to rehabilitate them because their fantasies cannot be erased or altered.” The author likewise spends an extraordinary amount of energy associating these criminals with perverted beings born in literature, cinema, or folklore, possibly because in this way he dehumanizes them, allowing the reader to nurture their sickest inclinations without fleeing. the risk of feeling identified with them.
Some of the people portrayed in Inside the Monster will be no more familiar than those already knowledgeable in the world of serial killers; Killing his wife and two children in 1994 for supporting them, preventing him from financing his gambling and the luxury lifestyle he desired, Dr. like Iwao Nomoto; or Norman Afzal, known as the “train station strangler” who demonstrated in Cape Town (South Africa) from 1986 to 1993, who raped and murdered twenty black children aged 9 to 15. But the real stars here – besides Ressler – are two subjects so famous that they both have their own series on Netflix. The book, in fact, completely reproduces the interviews the criminologist had with John Wayne Gacy—who was executed in 1994 for raping and murdering 33 young men, some of whom were underage—and Jeffrey Dahmer, who was confirmed to be a pop icon after its premiere. 2022 of Dahmer’s 10 episodes.
Between the late 1970s and early 1990s, the so-called “Milwaukee cannibal” murdered and dismembered 17 adult or adolescent males, and later and most of its crimes involved necrophilia and the complete or partial preservation of the victim’s skeleton. Dahmer, who tortured some of their prey by punching holes in their skulls, admits, “Hiding their bones was a way of feeling that I was at least recovering some of their essence, that killing them wasn’t completely wasted.” by pouring acid directly into the brain with a drill, with the intent to “kill one’s mind but keep one’s body alive and obedient.” He also did anthropophages with some corpses. “I held my heart. I also cut the biceps (…) into small pieces, washed them, put them in airtight bags and put them in the freezer (…) Then I cooked them and masturbated,” he explains in the book. “So I felt more like they were a part of me. sexually stimulating.”
How should society treat people like Dahmer? In Inside the Beast, Ressler gives no real answers on this subject, but invites reflection. “When someone is crazy, we expect them to have crazy eyes, drool, and be unable to control their abilities. However, there are many disturbed people who seem like sane and functional people. Society has not developed an adequate way to treat them,” he adds. Focusing on concepts like good and bad is not even an approximation to the complex reality of what they do.
The empathy implied by these words is confirmed in other parts of the book; here the author is uncomfortably aware of the connections between monsters and their predators. For example, in one of these, Ressler describes his biographical ties to Gacy: “We grew up four blocks away. Gacy reminded me of when my mom made a delivery to the IGA grocery store where she used to shop, and she remembered my home because of some of our special flower pots on the patio, plus the scout groups to which we belonged were the same every week. We were meeting at the country house, next to some sports facilities, and going to the same cinema ».
In another, recalling an interview with Dahmer, he writes: “He even hinted that I might be a good serial killer. I said that for a long time I was among the criminals. And we laughed”.