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.