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.