Saturday, August 30, 2014

Part 2: San Quentin State Prison Death Row. August 24th 2014. Psychopaths vs Sociopaths

Following on from the Day 1 at San Quentin when I interviewed a 'mass murderer' inside a cage for 5 hours....  The following day I spent 5 hours in a cage interviewing a 'serial killer'.   These two types of killers have totally different mindsets and personalities.  The serial killer was a huge struggle and I'll explain about some of this interview in my writing below:

I have always known that this particular serial killer is not very social and every year he seems to get worse.  
He has lost his 'people skills' which he had a little of years before.  The reason for this is what I state all the time:  'Being isolated and alienating yourself from society can breed 'mental illness'/depression/anti social disorder and all the other names one can think up.'

Being on Death Row for so many years, and rarely ever going to the yard, this particular serial killer really does behave like the serial killers we read about.   The weird look in the eyes, grinding of the teeth, his aggressive speech, a complete (self induced) paranoia, controlling words and strong opinions, the:  'I don't want that flavour burrito', 'You should've got me that...'  Why didn't you get  'I told you so', 'you shouldn't this', 'you never listen', 'don't, don't', 'I hate that person.... ',  'don't look at my neighbours', and this list goes on with all the negative, rude and paranoid comments that this man says.  Yet this continues to be a very interesting case study for me.

I will digress a bit now:

I learn so much about peoples behaviours by spending time with individuals from all walks of life on a daily basis.  For me, I didn't study sociology or psychology at school.   I'm not a scholar on any level.  However I am a 'doer'.

When I write books I go straight to the source to get in their minds and understand the way they think.  Then I write from that place and what I have learned.   After those interviews, I will then add the trimmings, ie, the transcribed Trial/Court transcripts, legal documents and interviews with people/family members surrounding the case.

Most authors don't ever get to interview their subject, either because they are not able to due to the inmate/subject not wanting to talk to them, or they cannot get clearance in to a prison or jail. Therefore most authors write about the trimmings and write about what other people say about their subject.
There is nothing wrong with this kind of writing and it takes just as much effort to write their books as I do with mine, however I prefer to start at the horses mouth to get my story.

If it helps at all, I never had a cooking class in my life and taught myself to cook about 6 years ago.  I love cooking so much that I made it to the finals of Masterchef with Gordon Ramsay.  Meaning I made it to the final 100 'home chefs' in America out of 30,000 chosen, to compete for the prize of  being the Masterchef.  I did not make the final 28 as those contestants were super spectacular!

My point behind what I just wrote in italics, is that you don't have to go to school to learn anything, least of all communication and people skills which is the key to all kinds of writing, investigative journalism, public speaking and all the interviews needed to validate this.

Back to the subject/serial killer at hand:
Knowing that this particular serial killer is a 'piece of work', I told the guards that I might want to leave 'the cage' early as this time is not going to be as good the interview/meeting from the day before ~ with the mass murderer.  The guards were new to this 'contact' area and hadn't a clue what I was talking about..... until later on.

After an hour or so of being inside the cage with this inmate, I asked the most important question of all.   I have always answered this question from my own opinion in interviews, however I had always wanted to ask him to hear it from a real serial killer's mouth and not anyone else's:

"What is the difference between a Psychopath and a Sociopath?"
His response was shocking yet very interesting:

"I am a psychopath Victoria, I am not a sociopath"  I gulped but realized he was probably correct.
"Why, what is the difference?"

"Well, a psychopath is someone who is compelled and predisposed to killing the victim types we choose.   We have to do it.  We have no choice.  However we have empathy for people we care about and the rest of the world.  Even the family members of the victims we kill.  We lack social skills (I knew that) and we isolate ourselves in society only opening up to very few chosen ones.   We are more paranoid than most and the homicidal urge can be overwhelming at times.  With people we would never kill, we don't even think of killing them, however we are predisposed to kill so the thoughts are continually in our minds."

"So what is a sociopath then?"  I asked, thinking that he might be both.
"A sociopath is someone who pretends to care about someone/people but really doesn't.  They have no empathy and are often narcissists.  They have amazingly good people skills but are only out for themselves and are not able to care about anyone on a deep level.  They make people believe they care when they truly don't.  Most people in here (on Death Row) are either psychopaths or a sociopaths.
So I said,  "What about ***** ?  (The name of the mass murderer I had interviewed the day before)?" To which he said that ***** was neither one of those types of people.  
"His murders were all crime of passion murders and drug induced.   Those are the main and fundamental differences between a psychopath and a sociopath."

This was interesting to me as it made sense.  However I believe that even a psychopath can be less psychopathic (if that's even a word) if they would connect/communicate with more people.

I told him he should spend more time on the yard, or in group meetings, or saying hello to other inmates that come down to visit in the next cages to us... with their family members.  But no, he won't do it.   He won't even look in their direction unless it's the few he will speak to on the Row.
He prefers to sit in his cell and fester in his paranoia which is very sad.   I have seen a decline in this person over the years and I attribute this to lack of connection with society making him an isolated human being.   He has completely alienated himself from everyone except the few people whom he trusts.   I am one of those people whom he trusts, along with a lovely family he's known since his childhood and a few inmates including the mass murderer who will remain nameless.

There was much more we talked about in the visit, but I will choose to save this for my interviews and my upcoming books.  For today I wanted to share this on my blog.  
Feel free to comment or ask me a question and I will respond within a few days... to everyone.

Responding to the question from T. Lin

.... My response to the question from T. Lin (and the question asked) is below as it exceeded the word count to go in the comments 'response' box:



What is your opinion Victoria when drugs and alcohol are a non-issue? Is it their up bringing? Is it their parent's fault? Is it society in general that causes these people to whack out? Is it the lack of medication for mental health issues? I know you have interviewed so many of these people. I'm curious what you have learned is the main cause of these killer's skewed thinking?


Well in my opinion T. Lin (and I stress this is only my opinion), I would say that if drugs and alcohol were not in the picture when a person commits a heinous crime, then it can be any caused by any of the following reasons:

1.  When parents of young children are not 'hands on' with them:
 IE:  they let them play video games and watch television on a continual basis.
When parents don't connect and bond with their children and/or watch their behaviour, then this can lead to isolation in a child which only gets worse as they get older.  

With lonely/shy types of children, this can encourage these kids to also detach from their piers and other children which ultimately causes that child to feel alienated from society as they grow.  I believe that this all starts with the parents.

Sometimes it's not the parents fault and a child can just alienate themselves from other school mates, however, parents need to be more aware of this and encourage them to connect with other kids and their elders too.  

We should be encouraging our children to go out and play ball games in the street after school (when homework is done) with their friends, sit around a table for dinner with the rest of the family.  There should be continual communication amongst the family as we always have in Western European countries.

When I lived in Spain (and worked as a nanny) there wasn't a day when we didn't all sit around the table for the evening meal.  The kids played with other kids in the road and also inside the house.  Children asked more questions to adults, way more than they do now?  Nowadays, at least here in the US, people and children are so 'fear based' and this leads to alienation and isolation.   This can cause children to grow up and want to just explode and therefore can commit horrific atrocities such as mass murder.

2.  As for mental issues, well this is something I have never come across until I moved to America.   The parallel I make is this:

When I moved to Los Angeles, I was shocked to see how many people are on medication, especially mind altering medication, like anti-depressants, pain killers, anti bi-polar, (anti this and anti that) etc.  This has always been quite shocking to me.

Therefore I attribute a lot of children today, who have been a product of a parent taking medication, were therefore born with these chemicals in their system.  This is quite possibly a reason for them growing up with different forms of 'mental disease'.

I personally don't understand what depression is, but I know it is said to be a chemical imbalance in the brain and this disease seems rampant in America.  For those people I feel extremely sorry, however if they must take medication for this, then don't get pregnant or procreate until it is fully out of your system.   The likelihood of your child being born with something fundamentally wrong, will be very high.

If this 'feeling of depression' that people get is really just that you're having a bad week, then get a 'stiff upper lip' and wait for the problem to pass and get back to being motivated about all you are doing in your life.  And if you're not motivated about anything, then find something... it's as simple as that!

I feel a lot of people  here in the US want to turn straight to medication without addressing the issue.  Basically they are using medication to dull the pain when it can be sorted out if you sort out what the problem is until it is over.

I personally am very against medication of all kinds especially ones that alter the mind.  (The last time I was prescribed medication was an antibiotic (10 years ago) when I had a spider bite).

I think that so many of these types of medication have dangerous side affects, therefore, to bring children in to this world born from a parent using mind altering medication is grounds for a potential (huge) problem with your child.  

Again, this is only my opinion and some mental disease may have come from other reasons like being hereditary or even a bang on the head.  So this is all said with the greatest respect to those that suffer from mental disease which never stemmed from ingested chemicals.

Bottom line is what I live by:  Connection and communication is the key to life.  Let's stay connected to each other as a society, let's smile and/or nod at people we meet on a daily basis.  Modern technology doesn't help matters, but communication doesn't have to be conversation, it can just be a gesture on the road to let someone in front or a compliment to an old lady in the grocery store etc.. or a smile to some isolated adolescent that hasn't had anyone give them the time of day for a long time.  It's really quite simple if we do our part... and I truly believe.. that this will help in not creating 'monsters' out in our world today.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

San Quentin State Prison Death Row. August 23rd 2014. Mass Murderers vs Serial Killers

Many people have asked me what is the difference between a mass murderer and a serial killer. I have answered that, professionally speaking, a mass murderer kills a large number of people all at one time with no cooling off period in between. Mass murderers know that Law Enforcement are going to arrest, or kill them on the spot, or they will kill themselves.   However a serial killer will kill 3 or more people over a period of time with a cooling off period in between each murder.

Today I had a 5 hour visit inside a cage with a well-known mass murderer here on Death Row at San Quentin State prison.  He has not, and has never had, any kind of mental disease as many mass murderers seem to have nowadays.  However the lethal cocktail of drugs and alcohol was the main reason for him to commit the atrocities that he committed, on that one day in April, a number of years ago which sent him to Death Row.  I do not want to say the date as I do not want to divulge his name at this time.

Interviewing a serial killer... And I have interviewed many... And interviewing a mass murderer, are completely different in many different ways.  When he spoke, he spoke of "the tragedy"that happened.  
He spoke of the fond memories that he had of his family, his daughters, his wife and his job.  Even his boss. Yet these are the very people he killed while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  

From what he told me today, he was always a big drinker, and being the main supervisor of a Vineyard certainly didn't help him.  However he had never taken a drug in his life and, after being offered a huge amount of cocaine at closing time at the bar in Sonoma while he was completely intoxicated, he willingly accepted it.  

I did not know him when this crime happened so I cannot say for certain that this is true, however when I am given information by an inmate I do check out the story by asking a question relating to the same topic many different ways during the interview.  Each time he answered it the same way... It seemed to me that he had truly never touched drugs before in his life.

"The Tragedy" was when he decided to take the life of his three daughters (one survived), his wife, his mother-in-law, his boss, and a few other people along the way.  All in a drug induced state.  I truly do believe that he has remorse, even though it's too late now.  The media will not portray this but I'm going to let you know that he does have remorse.  

When I was very young, at the age of 11,  our closest friends in England fell victims to murder at the hands of a mass murderer.   In those days I thought a serial killer and a mass murderer were the same evil entity, they most definitely are not.  

It is a great shame that these two types of people exist in this world. And with a better understanding  of what causes people to commit such tragedies like this, I truly believe they can be prevented from happening in the future.  

I understand what alcohol can do to a human body but from what I have learned, illegal and prescribed drugs can do far worse.  I am trying to understand what creates the type of person to be able to commit these heinous crimes so that, as a society, we can prevent them from happening in the future. 

These are observations that I have made from my one-on-one interviews with these murderers.  Therefore they are from my own personal experiences and I am open to any and all feedback.






Wednesday, August 13, 2014

.... Well this is the first Blog I have ever written in my life!  I'm not sure how it works but I'll give it my best shot.

I want to make this Blog open to any and all people that would like to talk to me, ask me a question, or share their opinions even if they are different from my own.  I'm sure there will be many with very different opinions than my own as I have been told that I am opinionated and occasionally a little controversial.  However,  I embrace all differences of opinion, when it's done in a respectful way with no attacking.  I don't attack anyone and I never have, therefore nor will I on my Blog.

This Blog will not be focused on my work or my career, however the lines will cross over at times.

Those people who know me, know that I am passionate about everything I believe in and all that I stand for.  This is the reason for me finally starting my Blog:

I am passionate about bringing back the human connection in society today which is so sadly lacking due to modern technology and also fear based people.
I have ideas on how to accomplish this which I will explain later on.


I am passionate about getting the wrongly convicted out of prisons today.  Especially where evidence was withheld in Trials that could have cleared these convicted individuals.   (I am not including serial killers in this as I believe all the 'serial killers' whom I have interviewed are as guilty as hell)!
I have ideas on how to accomplish this which I will explain later on.



I am passionate about bringing the morals back to females of today - the way females behaved decades ago.   If females had the morals from the old days then there would be far less 'hard/jaded women' in the world today.
Women wouldn't be accusing men of 'date rape' etc when they got drunk and naked and then said oooops!   Ladies from decades ago (and the minority of us females who have morals and self worth of today) were/are not trying to be men!   We are feminine and still like to consider it to be a man's world on so many levels.  What's wrong with being a strong female yet also wanting to clean the house and have a meal ready for your partner when he gets home.   After all, since the beginning of time females were the born nurturers and men were the born hunters.  So lets not go against nature.
I have ideas on how to accomplish this which I will explain later on.



I will also be following certain Trials and documenting what happens in this Blog.  I welcome all comments and feedback as I've already stated.

I will be adding my (humble??) opinions on current events in the News today and my upcoming book ideas and writings etc.

For all those who have followed me on other social media sites, my book on the 'alleged' Grim Sleeper is now complete, however it will be a while before it is released.  (The reason for this is because of my respect for the homicide detectives in this Trial who have asked me not to release it just yet.  Last Friday I was asked very nicely by one of the homicide detectives to wait until the Verdict is read and I will honour that.)

So for now I will close until the next installment..... please stay tuned!