When most people hear the term "psychopath" today, they probably think of a wild-eyed, crazy criminal who suffers from extreme mental illness and irrational, schizophrenic behavior. Today's popular culture has crafted a distorted image of psychopathy, conflating it with mental illness or schizophrenia. As a result, the term has lately begun to lose its meaning.
However, the word "psychopath" actually has its roots in legitimate psychological and psychiatric studies, and for criminologists it is imperative that a distinction is made between popular culture psychopaths and actual psychopaths.
I am going to try and do that in this article, and attempt to rectify the distorted perception of what psychopathy really is. As trivial as this conflation may seem, there is actually much more at stake than one might realize.
Psychopathy ≠ Mental Illness
First, I must address the inaccurate conflation of psychopathy with mental illness. Let me make this abundantly clear: Psychopathy is NOT a mental illness. It is not even CLOSE to a mental illness!
According to the DSM-V, a mental illness is defined as a condition that impairs a cognitive function and/or causes chronic distress, pain, increased risk of death, or loss of autonomy.
Major symptoms of mental disorder include an inability to discern reality from fiction, or an inability to discern right from wrong. Neither of these symptoms are present in psychopaths. A psychopath does not suffer a break from reality. He isn't crazy or troubled or unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. A psychopath actively CHOOSES to do what is wrong, both because he doesn't care for the well being of other people and because he derives sadistic pleasure from inflicting pain on others.
To conflate mentally ill people with psychopaths is dangerous, because it implies that psychopaths are not in control of their own actions, and that their behavior is the result of some "cognitive impairment" that inhibits their mental function. But the truth is that, according to the DSM-V, a psychopath does not suffer from the mental debilitation commonly seen in those suffering from mental illness.
So what is a psychopath? According to the DSM-V, psychopathy is not a mental illness but a personality disorder. Psychopathy has been observed and documented by criminologists and psychologists alike for centuries.
In the 19th century, criminologists observed that some criminals could not be classified as mentally ill offenders and "normal" offenders. They fit somewhere in the middle of the two groups; not mentally ill but not normal either. These criminals were characterized by their sadistic tendencies, superficial charm, cunning manipulation, extreme narcissism, and a total lack of empathy for others. They understood what was right and what was wrong, yet they consciously chose to do what was wrong, deriving a sort of sadistic pleasure from doing so.
Measuring Psychopathy
In the 20th century, the renown psychologist Robert Hare devised the "Psychopathy Checklist", or PCL-R, which served as a "test" by which psychiatrists could diagnose individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder (the medical term for psychopathy). This 40-point test was based on 20 different factors:
1. Glibness and superficial charm
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
3. Pathological lying
4. Conning/manipulative
5. Lack of remorse or guilt
6. Emotionally shallow
7. Callous/lack of empathy
8. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
9. Need for stimulation/prone to boredom
10. Parasitic lifestyle
11. Lack of realistic, long-term goals
12. Impulsivity
13. Irresponsibility
14. Poor behavioral control
15. Early behavioral problems
16. Juvenile delinquency
17. Revocation of conditional release
18. Criminal versatility
19. Promiscuous sexual behavior
20. Many short-term marital relationships
Psychopaths are masters of deception. In front of others, they will put on a mask of superficial charm and charisma. They will appear reasonable, measured, calm, charming, and friendly. Many psychopaths, in fact, are expert womanizers, luring women with their charm and charisma and presenting themselves as "guardians".
But that superficial charm is just that: superficial. And when that mask is removed or broken through, the real, evil soul of the psychopath is revealed.
A Few Psychopaths I've Written About
I have written about numerous individuals on this website who were either diagnosed psychopaths or ones that displayed prominent psychopathic traits, and examining their lives gives us a bit of an insight into the psychopathic brain. Let's look at four prominent examples.
Joseph Ricci
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| Joe Ricci |
First, let's examine one of the most evil, and most successful, psychopaths in the modern era: Joseph J. Ricci.
Joe Ricci was the founder of Elan School, an "alternative school" for "troubled teens" in Maine that engaged in horrific abuse against its students, forcing them to fight one another, subjecting them to constant degradation and humiliation, depriving them of sleep and food, and physically beating them for even the most minor infractions.
When I first watched a video of an interview of Joe Ricci, something about the way he talked set off alarm bells in my mind. He was an expert smooth-talker and was extremely charming - almost too charming. Immediately, even without knowing anything about Ricci at the time, I could tell that his demeanor was not genuine. The superficial charm was very reminiscent of a psychopath.
Further research into Ricci's life confirmed this. Joe Ricci displayed all of the classic qualities of psychopathy. He had a long criminal record stretching back to his days in middle school. He was a bully as a child, and became sexually promiscuous at an early age.
Above all, Ricci was known to be extremely charming in front of others, and he used it to his advantage. Ricci's ex-wife reported that she first met him when he came up to her at a train station. He seduced her with flattery and charm, and the two soon became married.
But once Ricci married his wife, his charming demeanor fell away. He became abusive and possessive, threatening and degrading her whenever she did something he didn't like. Ultimately, the marriage fell apart, and, fed up with the unrelenting abuse, Ricci's wife left him.
One can actually see Ricci's two-facedness in an interview from 1983 that he did when a documentary team visited Elan. The team had come across a young boy at the school who was being punished for running away by being put in leg shackles and a humiliating pink rabbit suit.
When the film crew asked Ricci about the boy's punishment, he was originally charming and calm, but, as they pressed on, beginning to ask him questions he didn't like, Ricci's attitude immediately and visibly changed. It was yet another telling sign of his malignant psychopathy.
The video clip is below:
Notice at the beginning how Joe Ricci is laid back, talking to the interviewer in his characteristically smooth, charming fashion. He calmly explains why the boy is being punished.
But, when the interviewer presses Ricci about the treatment of the boy, that charming demeanor immediately evaporates, replaced by an angry, domineering personality. Ricci instantly becomes aggressive, leaning forward (a characteristic display of dominance) and practically yelling at the interviewer.
This is a classic trait of a psychopath. They will put on a thin veneer of charm and charisma, but once that superficial charm is broken, they immediately reveal their true, evil self. And that true, evil self was exactly what Joe Ricci was inadvertently revealing.
In the end, Ricci never faced any criminal charges for the horrific abuse he committed against the children at Elan. He died in 2001 from lung cancer - a terrible end for a terrible man.
Mark Hopkinson
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| Mark Hopkinson |
One of the most notorious psychopaths I've ever written about is a criminal by the name of Mark Hopkinson. In the late 1970s, Mark Hopkinson, a real-estate developer in the tiny town of Fort Bridger, terrorized the state of Wyoming by ordering the bombing murders of an entire family and, while in prison, he ordered the torture-murder of his best friend and former employee, Jeff Green, to prevent him from testifying.
Mark Hopkinson is one of the most dangerous and evil criminals I have ever studied. He was a bona-fide psychopath in every sense of the word. He was incredibly charming and charismatic, and was well-liked in his community, but beneath that veil lay a sadistic, twisted soul consumed by greed, narcissism, and egomania.
From an early age, Hopkinson displayed numerous disturbing psychopathic traits. Although he was highly intelligent, Hopkinson used his intelligence and his charisma to commit petty crimes and then charm (or lie) his way out of trouble. As a young man he shot animals for fun, dealt drugs, conned people out of their money, and sexually assaulted young girls.
When he was a teenager, Hopkinson broke into the homes of his friends and stole guns and truck tires. After he was caught, he managed to manipulate the judge into giving him a suspended sentence, and he also managed to charm his friends into not only forgiving him, but also into inviting him back into their homes - the same homes he had previously robbed.
Hopkinson's crime spree began in 1976 after he got into a legal dispute with his neighbor over construction work. At first, Hopkinson paid a visit to his neighbor and tried to use his charm to convince the neighbor to let him continue the construction. And, much like with Joe Ricci, when the neighbor refused to comply with his demands, Hopkinson's superficial charm immediately melted away. Hopkinson instantly became angry and menacing, threatening to "inconvenience" his neighbor if he didn't agree to his demands.
Ultimately, Hopkinson embarked on a campaign of harassment. In 1977, he ordered the bombing murder of his neighbor's attorney and the attorney's family. While awaiting trial for that crime, Hopkinson also ordered the torture-murder of his friend and employee, Jeff Green, to stop him from testifying against him.
After being convicted of the four murders, Hopkinson was sentenced to death, but even while on death row he attempted to order several more murders and threatened to have the prosecutor in his case skinned alive. In 1992, Hopkinson was executed by lethal injection, and he remains the last person executed by the state of Wyoming.
Gerry Spence, the prosecutor who tried Hopkinson, later wrote that he considered Hopkinson to be the "epitome of evil".
One would be hard-pressed to disagree.
Dwight York
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| Dwight York |
Cult leaders are often the most vile of psychopaths, and Dwight York - the charismatic, racist, and sadistic leader of a black supremacist cult known as the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors - was no exception.
The only good thing I can say about York is that he was never convicted of murder (although one of his most vocal critics was shot dead under suspicious circumstances in a case that has never been solved). But that is the only positive aspect of York, and it is a very low bar to set.
York currently holds a world record for the largest number of child molestation convictions against a single defendant. Although he was only charged with 197 individual counts of child molestation, prosecutors believe that the true number of York's victims exceeds 2,000 children.
York displays almost every single documented trait of psychopathy. He was incredibly charming, charismatic, and intelligent, and, above all, he was a master manipulator, a pathological liar, and a skilled con artist.
A major trait of psychopathy demonstrated by York is his insatiable egomania. York proclaimed himself to be an alien savior sent to earth, an Egyptian pharaoh, a Native American chieftain, a "being" with supernatural powers, the reincarnation of the Prophet Muhammad, the Mahdi, and the personification of God Himself.
York's greatest skill, of course, was lying. Everything about Nuwaubianism was based on York's never-ending lies. York lied about everything - history, science, technology, conspiracy theories, himself, his followers, the government, white people, black people, religion, art, mathematics, and education.
York's lies even extended to language itself. He crafted a false etymology for common English words. For instance, York taught that the word "exact" came from "eggs" and "act" (breaking an egg), that "realize" came from "real" and "eyes", and that "believe" came from "be-lie-eve" (supposedly meaning "to lie to Eve's children").
York didn't really believe anything he was teaching his followers. He had only three goals in mind: money, sex, and power.
York's now-estranged son, Jacob, recalls a conversation with York in which York told him "I don't believe in any of this shit. If I had to dress up as a nun, if I had to be a Jew, I'd do it for this type of money."
And the most prominent example of York's psychopathy is his criminal sexual behavior. York's sexual improprieties started when he was arrested at age 19 for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. From 1967 to 2002, York went on to molest and rape thousands of women and children (some as young as four), and he fathered between 200-400 children of his own.
In terms of psychopathy, York fit the profile to an absolute T. In fact, his score on the PCL-R test is one of the highest recorded - a 39/40.
York was finally busted for his crimes in 2002 when he was arrested by FBI agents in Georgia. Convicted of nearly 200 counts of child molestation and racketeering, York was sentenced to 135 years in prison, where he remains to this day.
Lawrence Bittaker
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| Lawrence Bittaker |
For the sake of time, I won't run through all the psychopaths I have written about, but I cannot properly discuss psychopathy without mentioning Lawrence Bittaker, a serial killer whom I consider to be the most evil and depraved person in history.
Lawrence Bittaker was literally born to be evil. At the age of 12, Bittaker committed his first crime - robbing a jewelry store - and he was sent to prison more than 15 times before finally landing on California's death row for the brutal kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of five teenage girls.
Bittaker and an accomplice, Roy Norris, met in prison in 1976 and quickly developed a deadly friendship. Bittaker had long possessed a disturbing fantasy of kidnapping one girl of each age from 12-18, raping and torturing them, and then killing them. Norris agreed to participate in Bittaker's plan, and, once the two were released from prison they bought a van and began driving around the Redondo Beach area in Los Angeles, scouting for young girls.
Bittaker would charm the girls and flatter them with comments about their appearance. He would invite them into his van to smoke some marijuana or get a cold drink and then he and Norris would tie them up, gag them, and drive into the mountains.
In the mountains, Bittaker and Norris would each rape their victims, but Bittaker's actions went far beyond rape. He would stab the girls' breasts with ice picks, smash their limbs with a hammer and tear pieces of their flesh off with pliers. On two occasions, Bittaker even tape-recorded the agonizing shrieks of the girls as they were tortured.
Five young girls - 13-year-old Jacqueline Leah Lamp, 15-year-old Jackie Gilliam, 16-year-old Lucinda "Cindy" Schaefer, 16-year-old Shirley Lynette Ledford, and 18-year-old Andrea Hall - met violent, agonizing deaths at the hands of Bittaker and Norris during the summer and fall of 1979.
While Norris undoubtedly had sadistic tendencies of his own, Bittaker's actions were so depraved that they horrified even Roy Norris. Norris participated in the kidnappings primarily for the rape, while Bittaker participated in them for the torture. Bittaker derived sexual pleasure from inflicting pain and suffering on his victims, and he thrived on the feeling of dominance over others.
Bittaker also displayed psychopathic traits such as pathological lying. When he was first arrested, Bittaker denied all involvement in the murders, and when that failed to convince police he instead tried to shift the blame to Roy Norris.
During Bittaker's trial, a tape-recording of the torture and rape of 16-year-old Shirley Lynette Ledford was played in court for the jury to hear. The tape was so disturbing that some jurors vomited or rushed out of the courtroom in tears. Bittaker, however, sat still, smiling an evil grin as he listened to his handiwork.
Ultimately, Bittaker was convicted of murder and rape and was sentenced to death. He remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison awaiting execution.
Norris pleaded guilty to the same charges in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, and is currently serving a sentence of life in prison.
Of all the many people I have studied, Lawrence Bittaker ranks as the most vile, evil, and depraved criminal I have ever come across. Like Dwight York, Lawrence Bittaker scored a 39/40 on the PCL-R test. He is nothing but a clinical psychopath to the bone.
Mental Illness and Psychopathy: Why We Need to Make a Clear Distinction
None of the people I mentioned above were mentally ill, and this is why we really need to make a clear distinction between mental illness and psychopathy. They are not the same thing and we need to stop seeing them as the same thing.
A mentally-ill person is, for the most part, unable to discern between reality and fiction, or tell the difference between right and wrong. Mental illness is exactly that - an illness, and like all illnesses the people who suffer from it are sick and need help. They need a supportive community that can care for them and make sure they do not hurt themselves or others.
But a psychopath is not mentally ill. A psychopath is highly intelligent, extremely charming and manipulative, and completely cogent of their actions. A psychopath can discern between what is real and what is not. They know the difference between right and wrong. They just don't care. A psychopath derives sexual and sadistic pleasure from inflicting pain on other people - not because he has a debilitating mental illness, but rather because he is, at heart, evil.
Simply put, a mentally-ill person suffers from their condition, whereas a psychopath possesses their condition. A mentally-ill person is sick. A psychopath is simply evil.
So many of you may be wondering "So what? Why is it so important to make a distinction between psychopathy and mental illness?"
Well, it is actually far more important than one might think. You see, if we consider psychopathy to be a mental illness, it gives the false impression that, with due time and treatment, a psychopathic criminal can be "cured" or "rehabilitated" to become a functional member of society.
But that is actually not the case. Treatments we use for mental illness will not work on psychopathic criminals. Why? Because they aren't mentally ill. They're not sick. They're not crazy. They're just evil.
Tragically, this mistake has had dire consequences in the past. Back in the 1970s, a psychopathic criminal named Kenneth McDuff was released on parole after serving time for a brutal rape and double-murder of a young couple. The prison had mistakenly believed that McDuff was mentally ill, and had released him after concluding he had been properly "rehabilitated" through treatment.
But what the prison officials didn't realize was that McDuff was tricking them. Being a psychopath, McDuff was an expert charmer and manipulator, and he was able to convince the parole board that he had been "rehabilitated" to the point where he could re-enter society.
And, once he was out of prison, McDuff went on to abduct, rape, torture, and murder an additional 9 people. Nine innocent lives were extinguished because prison officials didn't realize that they were dealing not with a mentally-ill criminal, but a psychopath.
Psychopaths also pose great risk even when they are sent to prison. Some have charmed and/or manipulated guards into kowtowing to their demands for more communication with the outside world, or have been able to continue running organized crime rings from prison by manipulating prison staff and other inmates to do their bidding.
It is imperative that we stop conflating psychopathy and mental illness. They are not the same thing. One is a treatable condition. One is a malignant, incurable evil. The only treatment for a psychopath is total isolation from innocent people. There is no way that people like Joe Ricci, Mark Hopkinson, Dwight York, or Lawrence Bittaker can ever become functioning, productive members of society. As long as they live, they will continue to try and inflict terrible pain and suffering on others.
True evil cannot be cured. It can only be contained.
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