The Richthofen Case * Part Two * Parte Dois

A crime that involves more than one culprit tends to present certain problems. When only one person has commited a crime, we know that person did everything, including the planning and execution of the murder. This is an aspect that has raised much debate in the Richthofen case, where the planning and execution on the crime was divided among three people. Suzane Von Richthofen’s parents were murdered and she seems to be the mentor; but her boyfriend Daniel Cravinhos and his brother Christian were the ones who actually commited the physical act.

Suzane and Daniel were together for a while when all of this happened. Suzane’s parents knew him, had frequent contact with him, it is known that they even went on vacations together. Apparently problems began when Manfred and Marísia found out their daughter was smoking pot with her boyfriend. Panic. Suzane was no more allowed to see Daniel. They were very strict, Suzane would later say. Fights and constant yelling began and were soon happening on a daily basis; the punishments and curfews too. It soon became unbearable for Suzane to cope with the frustration of not being able to do whatever she wanted, and the double murder began to be planned in her head, before anything, as a consequence of her hate.

It is not at all uncommon, if we look all over the world, to see stories of children that murder their parents. The opposite happens frequently too. These types of crimes are the pathological manifestation of something we all have: hate, including for the people we love. When my dad used to say to me, you can go out, but you have to be back by midnight, of course I’d get angry. We all had friends without curfews, friends who can stay out until whenever. And when I got back at 2 am instead of midnight, of course my dad felt angry too. Damnit, I have to sit here and worry about this disobedient daughter of mine. But our hate never destroyed our love. As much as we felt angry we didn’t act out on that anger – as much as in any human being, the homicidal hate exists and is very real, but we’re able to neutralize it, to control it, and our love is usually able to win the fight for as long as we don’t destroy our relationship with our hate.

It really takes a lot of love to hold back a person with a lot of hate – specially if this person doesn’t have the natural social restraints of the healthy human being, that profound disrespect for what’s right and wrong like I said in a previous post about the anti-social personality. A curious thing about all this is that, among the three killers, Suzane was the most affected by this crime, and with that she made it clear what her real motivations were: her own interests. And no one else’s. These parents get in my way? Off with them. Many people are going to suffer with this act of mine, our friends, the people we know and love, our family, my brother Andreas, who’s only 15 years old and will lose his parents, just like me, in the most violent and shocking way. What can I do. This that I’m doing will be a favor for Andreas too. We’ll have money, he won’t miss anything, it won’t make much difference. And he’ll also be free. At some point, everybody will forget about this and I’ll be here enjoying my life, doing whatever I want. No more limits, no more control.

It’s easy to see that a person like this has no real grasp on the impact of her acts. Manfred and Marísia were Suzane’s parents, and her parents were the victims chosen for this crime. It wasn’t the boys’ parents, who watched horrified their only two sons turn into the most despised people in all Brazil. It was the parents of that girl who climbed up the stairs to her home late at night, all alone, to make sure that Manfred and Marísia were fast asleep, harmless and unaware. Before going back down and clearing the way for her parents’ killers, she turned on the upstairs corridor light so that they could see where they were going. So they could be more competent in their act. And while two guys were smashing her parents’ head in the second floor, she was quietly sitting downstairs, listening to two people’s last moments of horror.

But not without checking on them first, let’s not forget. She hardly thought of anything else other than if her parents were in interesting conditions for her to do what she wanted to do next, against their will and without their knowledge, and against the will of her community, of the law and of the world where she lives.

And that’s a perfect psychopath.




(Suzane’s dominating strength seems to be the central aspect of this case. Later, we will discuss her interaction with the Cravinhos brothers, their part in this story and their possible personalities).

***


Um crime que envolve mais de uma pessoa apresenta certos problemas. Quando uma só pessoa é responsável, sabemos que ela fez tudo, planejou e executou. Essa questão levantou muito debate no caso Richthofen, onde o planejamento e a execução do crime foram tarefas divididas entre três pessoas. Os pais de Suzane Von Richthofen foram assassinados e ela parece ser a mentora. Mas o namorado Daniel Cravinhos e seu irmão Christian foram os fisicamente responsáveis pelos assassinatos.

Suzane e Daniel eram namorados já há algum tempo. Os pais de Suzane o conheciam, conviviam com ele e até viajaram juntos. Aparentemente os problemas começaram quando Manfred e Marísia descobriram que a filha e o namorado estavam fumando maconha. Desespero. Proibiram a filha de ver o menino. Eram muito rígidos, Suzane mais tarde diria. As gritarias e proibições se tornavam cada vez mais constantes; os castigos e punições também. A frustração de não poder fazer o que queria claramente ficou insuportável para Suzane, e o crime começou a ser planejado na cabeça dela, em decorrência do seu ódio.

Casos de filhos que matam seus pais não são tão incomuns se olharmos para o mundo. O contrário também vale. Esses crimes são a manifestação patológica de algo que todos nós temos: ódio, inclusive pelas pessoas que amamos. Quando meu pai me dizia, você pode sair, mas tem que estar de volta à meia noite é claro que eu ficava com raiva. Sempre temos amigos sem toque de recolher, que podem ficar na rua até mais tarde. E quando eu voltava às 2 horas ao invés de meia noite é claro que meu pai ficava com raiva. Caramba, tenho que ficar aqui preocupado com essa filha desobediente. Mas o nosso ódio nunca destruiu nosso amor. Podíamos ficar com raiva mas não atuávamos essa raiva – como em qualquer ser humano normal, o ódio homicida existe, mas somos capazes de neutralizá-lo, ter algum controle sobre ele, e como temos amor além de ódio, o amor costuma vencer e o ódio não consegue destruí-lo.

Realmente, só o amor é muito pouco para segurar alguém que tem muito ódio – e que não tem as travas sociais naturais do ser humano saudável, aquele profundo desprezo pelas regras que mencionei no meu texto sobre a personalidade anti-social. O detalhe mais curioso disso tudo é que, considerando-se os três responsáveis por este crime, Suzane obviamente é a mais afetada e com isso deixou clara a sua verdadeira motivação: seus próprios interesses. E os de mais ninguém. Esses pais me atrapalham? Pau neles. Literalmente. Muita gente vai sofrer com essas mortes, minha família, meus amigos, nossos conhecidos, meu irmão Andreas, de 15 anos, que como eu, perderá os pais dessa maneira tão violenta e súbita. Paciência. Isso que eu vou fazer é um favor ao Andreas. Vamos ter dinheiro, não vai faltar nada para ele, não vai fazer muita diferença. E ele também vai ficar livre. Uma hora vai passar, todo mundo vai se conformar e esquecer, e eu vou estar aí, numa boa, com meu namorado e com o dinheiro dos meus pais, para fazer o que a gente quiser. Não à proibição, não ao controle, não à coleira.

Dá para ver que essa pessoa não tem noção nenhuma do impacto de seus atos. Manfred e Marísia eram os pais de Suzane, e seus pais foram as vítimas escolhidas para este crime. Não foram os pais dos meninos, que acompanharam envergonhados e cabisbaixos seus dois únicos filhos serem arregaçados pelo Brasil inteiro. Foram os pais daquela moça que antes do crime subiu as escadas de sua casa, sozinha, para se certificar de que Manfred e Marísia se encontravam ali, dormindo e inofensivos. Antes de descer e dar o ok aos assassinos de seus pais, ela acendeu a luz do corredor para facilitar sua tarefa. E por fim ficou sentadinha no andar de baixo, ouvindo os últimos agonizantes momentos de seus pais, sendo mortos à golpes de barra de ferro.

Mas antes de tudo Suzane subiu para dar uma olhada neles, não podemos nos esquecer. Dificilmente pensou em qualquer outra coisa a não ser se seus pais estavam em condições interessantes para o que ela gostaria de fazer em seguida, contra sua vontade e sem seu conhecimento, e contra a vontade da comunidade, da lei e do mundo onde ela vive e que a acolhe.

Eis a perfeita psicopata.



(A força dominadora de Suzane me parece a linha central deste caso. Em seguida, vamos pensar sobre a interação de Suzane com os irmãos Cravinhos, seus papéis nesse crime e o que podemos concluir a respeito da personalidade de cada um).

The Richthofen Case * Case Study * Estudo de Caso

It’s the kind of thing you hear about in the newspaper right when you wake up, cause everybody’s talking about it. This is how it was for the city of Sao Paulo with the Richthofen murder case.

Sao Paulo is the third largest city in the world. It’s only behind Tokyo and New York in size and population. It is by far the largest city in Brazil. Crowded, traffic is hell, but it has its charms. Nowhere in the world you eat as well as one does here. There are millionaires and miserable people. A city of contrasts. The richest nightlife, unlike nowhere else again. At Avenida Paulista, the heart of Sao Paulo’s huge financial center, people in suits cross the streets side by side with punks, with kids, with whites blacks and asians. There’s plenty of violence too, robberies, kidnappings, Primeiro Comando da Capital. We’re used to hearing about that all the time. A story like the Richthofen case, on the other hand, is very rare. It shocked the whole country.

On November 1st, 2002, Sao Paulo woke up with the news that the night before, a well-to-do couple from an upclass neighborhood had been murdered in their sleep. Manfred and Marisia Von Richtofen were found severely beaten, dead in a pool of blood in their own bed. He was an engineer for Dersa, the state of Sao Paulo’s department of roads and freeways. She was a psychiatrist, who held a successful clinic and had a large number of clients. They had money, a beautiful large house, they were respected and loved by their family and friends. The couple’s two children, Suzane,19 at the time, and Andreas,15, were said to be both out at the time of the murders – she was with her boyfriend, Daniel, and he was at a local lan house playing video games. When they returned on that Saturday morning, they found their house opened, the burglar alarm off, and their parents savagely murdered in their room. They immediately called the police.

Of course the police immediately got to work on trying to find a good reason for something this brutal – revenge? Maybe the work of a madman? One of Marisia’s patients? Some money from the Richthofens was missing, Manfred’s things all over the place in his study. But if pure and simple robbery was the motive, why not take all the other stuff?

Meanwhile, the country sadly watched a pretty 19 year old blond girl and her younger brother hugging and crying as if there was no tomorrow on their parents’ funeral. Family and friends gathered all around them for support, the girl’s 21 year old boyfriend Daniel always by her side, with red, swollen eyes.

It is not clear exactly when the police started suspecting Suzane, but we know that they checked pretty much everybody around her. Then they found out that boyfriend Daniel’s older brother, Christian, had bought a new motorcicle just a couple of days after the murder. He didn’t have a job at the time. Under questioning, Christian broke down and named the other two, Suzane and Daniel, as participants. He said he and his brother did the actual killings, but that it was all Suzane’s idea.


(more on the Richthofen case soon)

***

O texto em inglês acima é uma breve introdução do caso Richthofen. Aqueles que lêem este blog em português dificilmente precisarão ser relembrados deste crime tão repercutido e tão famoso no Brasil. Suzane Von Richthofen, 19 anos na época do assassinato de seus pais, foi julgada e condenada recentemente junto com Daniel e Christian Cravinhos – os irmãos que fisicamente cometeram o hediondo crime, em 31 de outubro de 2002.


(mais sobre este caso em breve)

Modus Operandi II

In order to answer that question properly I will first ask another of my readers: what is the use of a certain modus operandi to the killer? Why does he insist in repeating it, in having patterns, knowing that it will only make it easier for the cops to catch him? Why doesn’t he kill different people, in distant places, in different moments, in different ways? Why doesn’t he kill one person with a knife, another with a gun, confusing the police and therefore avoiding to get caught?


Let’s say you’re hungry. Very hungry. You had breakfast at 6 am and now it’s 5 pm and you haven’t eaten anything all day. I do that sometimes, I live alone, so I have pretty much no structure when it comes to food, I either worry about it or I won’t eat, cause nobody will worry about that for me. Major nuisance. So when I’m working and I’m hungry it becomes harder to concentrate. I catch myself thinking, “when I leave my office I’m gonna stop by this place and buy… a burger! I love burgers. Oh no! Or I could go by that other place and get some sushi, I love sushi. Hummm… sushi”.

So now I’m fantasizing about burgers and sushi. I can’t help it, I’m very hungry. If I try to forget about it I’ll remember every time my stomach wants me to. Someone could come to me and ask, “are you hungry? Do you wanna eat a raw egg, I have one right here”. I won’t eat that, yuk, disgusting, I’ll keep on fantasizing about my burger and sushi – because I don’t like that. I’ll wait, knowing it will make me even more hungry, but I’ll wait so I can eat what gives me pleasure and enjoyment, not just anything.

And that is a simplified way of explaining what’s the use of a killer’s modus operandi to himself. His modus operandi is something that services his fantasy. He could kill in different ways, but that would be like the raw egg to me. Why bother eating it if it won’t satisfy my fantasy of eating stuff I like? And I can eat what I like if I want to.

The killer has urges, kinda like my hunger. And, just like me with burgers and sushi, he has specific ways to satisfy his hunger. It’s incidental to him that the release of his fantasy is illegal. And the violent life a psychopath will lead always begins with fantasy.

Jeffrey Dahmer, the famous american psychopath who ended up killing over 30 men and boys, had a lot to say about that. After he was caught and tried for his crimes, he revealed a lot about his life and early years. It is known that Jeffrey started fantasizing about violence and death as a very young boy. He began by developing a profound interest in dead creatures. When he found a dead animal, road kill mostly, he would take them to the woods and open them up. He wanted to see them on the inside, their organs. He later started killing the animals himself in order to dissect them. So it doesn’t surprise us that Dahmer later became a very aggressive mutilator. He had no real pleasure in their victims’ death or pain; he drugged them before killing them, and most of the time they didn’t even know what became of them. He had consuming fantasies of making his victims become a part of him, so after dismembering them and opening them up (his dissecting interest endured all his life), he would eat them. He wanted them to stay, and that was his motivation always. It is because of those fantasies too that Dahmer took a long time to dispose of his victims’ bodies. He kept them at home with him, rotting in his bed.

Therefore, the killer’s actions (his modus operandi) are closely related with his need to safisfy his violent fantasies. It wouldn’t satisfy Dahmer’s fantasies at all to kill someone, say, with a gun, and leave their bodies there, on the street. It wouldn’t satisfy him to rape a living person, only a dead one. It wouldn’t satisfy him to kill women because he was a homosexual. He had no desire for women. As much as I don’t have any desire for a raw egg.

A killer is trapped by his modus operandi. The most important thing to him is his specific fantasy of violence. His M.O. can’t be changed because he wants things to happen that way. The more rich and complex is his fantasy, the more rich and complex will be his M.O. And if a killer’s fantasies are poor and chaotic, his M.O. will be poor and chaotic as well.

(watch parts of an interview Jeffrey Dahmer gave from death row about his childhood and crimes, right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ndOUewUCc)

***

Para responder a esta questão, antes irei indagar meus leitores com a seguinte pergunta: para que serve o modus operandi para o criminoso? Por que ele insiste em repeti-lo, sabendo que isto facilitará o trabalho da polícia em encontrá-lo? Por que não mata pessoas diferentes, de lugares mais distantes, em momentos diferentes, com características diferentes? Por que não mata um com faca, outro com revólver, confundindo a polícia e evitando ser pego?


Vamos fingir que você está com fome, muita fome. Tomou café da manhã às 6 e agora são 5 da tarde e você não comeu mais nada até agora. Às vezes eu faço isso; como moro sozinha não tenho nenhuma infra-estrutura em relação às refeições. Ou me preocupo com isso ou não como, é simples assim, pois ninguém irá se preocupar no meu lugar. Quando estou trabalhando, portanto, e tenho fome, fica muito mais difícil me concentrar. Me pego pensando em coisas do tipo, “quando eu sair daqui vou passar em tal lugar e me comprar… um hamburger! Adoro hamburger. Mas não! Posso sair daqui e ir naquele outro lugar de sushi, amo sushi. Hummmm… sushi”.

Então eu começo a fazer essas pequenas fantasias meio incontroláveis sobre hanburgers e sushi. Não posso evitar, estou com muita fome. Se eu tentar me esquecer dela logo mais vou me lembrar de novo, meu estômago vai se manifestar e me lembrar. Nesse momento alguém poderia chegar para mim e dizer, “você está com fome? Quer comer um ovo cru, tenho um aqui”. Vou dizer que não, eca, que nojo, prefiro ficar pensando no meu hamburger e no meu sushi – porque eu não gosto de ovo cru. Eu espero, mesmo sabendo que quanto mais o tempo passa, com mais fome eu fico. Prefiro esperar e poder comer alguma coisa que me dê prazer, que me seja agradável, não quero comer qualquer coisa.

E essa é uma forma simplificada de se explicar o uso que o modus operandi de um assassino tem para si próprio. Seu modus operandi está à serviço de sua fantasia. Ele até poderia matar de outras maneiras, mas seria como o ovo cru para mim. Por que comê-lo se não vai nem satisfazer minha vontade de comer as coisas mais agradáveis? E eu posso comer as coisas mais agradáveis, se quiser.

O assassino tem necessidades, meio assim, como minha fome. E assim como eu e meus hamburgers, ele tem formas específicas de satisfazer sua fome. Para ele é incidental que a forma de realizar sua fantasia é ilegal. E a vida violenta que um psicopata levará no futuro começa a se desenvolver usando a fantasia como combustível.

Jeffrey Dahmer, o famoso psicopata americano que acabou por matar mais de 30 homens e meninos, teve muito a dizer sobre isso. Depois que ele foi julgado e condenado por seus crimes, acabou revelando muita informação sobre sua vida e sua infância. Hoje sabemos que Jeffrey era ainda um menino pequeno quando começou a fantasiar sobre violência e morte. Ele começou desenvolvendo um profundo interesse por criaturas mortas. Quando encontrava algum animal morto, principalmente em acidentes de estrada, ele levava seu corpo até algum lugar deserto e o dissecava. Ele queria vê-los por dentro, seus órgãos, eram algo que fascinava. Mais para frente ele próprio matava os animais que dissecava. Não nos surpreende saber que Jeffrey Dahmer mais tarde se tornou um dos mais agressivos mutiladores – mas não tinha grande prazer no ato de matar, ou na dor da vítima, pelo contrário. Costumava drogar suas vítimas antes de matá-las, e essas mal percebiam o que lhes acabava por acontecer. Dahmer tinha fantasias poderosas de um dia poder fazer o outro ser parte dele, comia partes de suas vítimas, depois de desmembrá-las e dissecá-las. Queria que as pessoas ficassem, essa sempre foi sua motivação. Por causa disso Dahmer demorava o máximo possível para se desfazer dos corpos de suas vítimas. Ficavam ali com ele, apodrecendo em sua cama.

Com isso percebemos que as atitudes do assassino (que compõem seu modus operandi) estão intimamente ligadas com a satisfação de suas fantasias. Dahmer não se satisfaria em matar alguém na rua com um tiro, ou em violentar alguém que esteja vivo. Não ficaria satisfeito em matar mulheres, era homossexual. Não tinha desejo por mulheres. Do mesmo jeito que eu não tenho vontade de comer o ovo cru.

Um assassino está sempre preso ao seu modus operandi, qualquer que seja. A coisa mais importante para ele é sua fantasia específica de violência. Seu modus operandi não pode mudar muito porque ele que que as coisas aconteçam daquele jeito. Quanto mais complexas e ricas forem suas fantasias violentas, mais complexo e rico será seu modus operandi. Se as fantasias de um assassino são pobres e caóticas, seu modus operandi também será pobre e caótico.

(Assista partes de uma entrevista que Jeffrey Dahmer deu direto do corredor da morte sobre sua infância e seus crimes, bem aqui: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ndOUewUCc)

Modus Operandi

When we have a crime commited as serious as a homicide (or several, when it involves a serial killer), the only starting point we have to begin understanding the criminal is the crime scene.

We’ve all watched CSI and similar shows, or at least we all can agree on the importance of criminalistics to ensure that the law is respected. Psychologists and psychiatrists are usually part of these teams. The physical evidence helps them create a possible psychological profile of the killer, and the result of that work aids the police in being more efficient and competent in finding their criminal.

To begin with, the crime scene is all we’ve got. We don’t know who the killer is, and many times, even when they’re caught, we have no acess to the way they think. Few murderers genuinely contribute to the understanding of their pathology – many psychopaths keep silent regarding their motivations. Since it’s part of their anti-social personality to lie and manipulate, it becomes even harder to know the truth.

It’s curious to conclude that I work under the same principle in my psychotherapy office, with emotionally healthy people (as healthy as we can all be). The facts always have to be confronted in our minds with what people say. We’ve got what it’s said, but we also got what we can see and notice without the person having to say anything. For example, if a person sits in front of me in an aggitated manner, and talks through the entire session non stop without giving me an opportunity to speak, I’ll find it at least curious if this person describes herself as a calm listener.

So let’s keep to the facts at first – the crime scene. What can the crime scene reveal to us? We have the actual place where the murder was commited, and we have the victim’s body. With that we can know what was done to the victim, their last moments alive, what kind of violence did they suffer. We can find out how the aggression was commited, we can determine by temperature how long the victim is dead. We can study the victim, in the absence of a killer. Their habits, their behavior, the last time they were seen in public. We can theorize about ways the victim could have come across their killer, the relationship they had with the killer (if any), how they were chosen, how they were taken, and how long the killer spent with them, alive and dead.

All of that and a bit more come together to establish the killer’s modus operandi, his “way in which he operates”, from the beginning to the end of his criminal behavior. We have examples of killers that strike and even kill in public places; others brake into their victims’ homes to assault and kill them there, others take the victim to a secure and known place. Many kidnap and spend lots of time with the victim, torturing them physically and psychologically before the final act. Others kill their victim within moments after they take them. Some hide the victim’s body in their own house, some just leave it there where the attack happened, others take the body to a deserted place which makes it more difficult to find it. Many make absolutely no contact with their victim prior to the attack, others stalk them, getting to know their habits. Some choose prostitutes, others older people, or kids, or adults. Some choose victims of specifical physical appearance, others are completely arbitrary, even when it comes to the victim’s gender.

This brings us to my main point. What is the advantage of studying a killer’s modus operandi? To the police the advantage is obvious. Getting to know a killer and the way they act will help them find and catch him faster, and also will able the police to determine the exact population at risk with that specific killer. In other words, it helps the police catch a criminal and try to avoid future crimes. But what about the psychological advantage? What can a killer’s modus operandi tell us about that killer’s personality and emotional structure?

In order to answer that question properly I will first ask another of my readers: what is the use of a certain modus operandi to the killer? Why does he insist in repeating it, in having patterns, knowing that it will only make it easier for the cops to catch him? Why doesn’t he kill different people, in distant places, in different moments, in different ways? Why doesn’t he kill one person with a knife, another with a gun, confusing the police and therefore avoiding to get caught?

Think about it. Let’s see what you can come up with.

***

Quando temos um crime cometido da gravidade de um assassinato (ou de vários, no caso de um assassino em série), o único dado que temos para começar a entender o criminoso é a cena do crime.

Todos nós já vimos CSI e programas do tipo, ou pelo menos temos noção da importância da ciência criminal para que a lei seja respeitada. Os psicólogos e psiquiatras costumam fazer parte destes times de criminalistas. As evidências físicas os ajudam a formular teses específicas sobre o comportamento do assassino – e esse trabalho por sua vez ajuda a policia a procurar mais eficientemente seu criminoso.

No início, cena do crime é tudo que temos. Não sabemos quem é o assassino, e muitas vezes não temos nenhum acesso a seu modo de pensar, até mesmo quando são presos pela polícia. São poucos os que contribuiram genuinamente para a compreensão da sua patologia - muitos psicopatas ficam em silêncio para sempre a respeito de suas motivações. Como faz parte da sua doença seu comportamento manipulatório, mesmo que resolvam falar fica ainda mais difícil saber em quê acreditar.

Curiosamente, trabalho com o mesmo princípio no meu consultório, atendendo pessoas mentalmente saudáveis (bem, o mais saudável que dá para ser). Os fatos sempre tem que ser confrontados com o que a pessoa diz. Temos o que é dito, mas temos antes de tudo aquilo que podemos observar sem que o outro tenha de falar. Por exemplo, se vejo uma pessoa sentar à minha frente, falar sem parar e chacoalhar a perna durante toda a sessão, devo achar no mínimo curioso se esta pessoa se disser calma, controlada e nada ansiosa em sua vida lá fora.

Vamos então nos prender aos fatos, à cena do crime. O que ela pode nos revelar? Temos o ambiente em que o crime foi cometido, e temos o corpo da vítima. Sabemos assim o que foi feito com a vítima, seus últimos momentos, que tipo de violência sofreu. Podemos saber em que ordem os ferimentos foram cometidos, podemos medir sua temperatura e descobrir a quanto tempo está morta, e portanto, há quanto tempo seu assassino esteve ali. Podemos estudar a vítima, na falta de um assassino. Seus hábitos, seu temperamento, a última vez em que foi vista em público. Podemos teorizar então em que momento encontrou seu assassino, qual a relação que provavelmente tinha com ele (se é que tinha alguma), como provavelmente ele fez para levá-la contra sua vontade, quanto tempo passou com ela, viva e morta.

Tudo isso e um pouco mais compoem o modus operandi do assassino, sua “maneira de operar”, do início até o final de seu comportamento criminoso. Temos assassinos que atacam e até matam na própria rua, outros invadem a casa da vítima e a agridem ali mesmo, outros a levam para um local seguro de seu conhecimento. Muitos raptam e passam longo tempo com a vítima, torturando-a fisicamente ou psicologicamente de tudo que é forma antes do ato final, que é a morte. Outros matam imediatamente. Alguns escondem o corpo da vítima na sua própria casa, outros largam ali mesmo onde o crime foi cometido, outros levam para lugares remotos que dificultem o descobrimento do corpo. Muitos não fazem contato algum com a vítima antes de matá-la, outros são stalkers, ou seja, elegem uma vítima e passam longo tempo planejando, seguindo a vítima, conhecendo seus hábitos. Alguns escolhem prostitutas, outros idosos, outros crianças, outros adultos. Alguns escolhem sua vítima com base em características físicas específicas (morenas, loiras, jovens, idosas), outros são totalmente arbitrários na escolha da vítima, inclusive em relação a seu sexo.

Chegamos então ao cerne da questão. Qual a vantagem de se estudar e determinar o modus operandi de um assassino? A vantagem para a polícia é óbvia. Claro que conhecer o assassino e como age ajudará a encontrá-lo, e também a determinar que tipo de população está sujeita ao ataque daquele assassino específico. Ou seja, tem a função de facilitar no encontro com o assassino, e também de evitar futuros crimes. Mas, e a vantagem psicológica, qual é? O que o modus operandi pode nos dizer de um assassino, em termos de personalidade e estrutura emocional?

Para responder a esta questão, antes irei indagar meus leitores com a seguinte pergunta: para que serve o modus operandi para o criminoso? Por que ele insiste em repeti-lo, sabendo que isto facilitará o trabalho da polícia em encontrá-lo? Por que não mata pessoas diferentes, de lugares mais distantes, em momentos diferentes, com características diferentes? Por que não mata um com faca, outro com revólver, confundindo a polícia e evitando ser pego?

Reflitam sobre isso. Vamos ver o que vocês têm a dizer.

Kevin Underwood * Part Two * Parte Dois

I believe today’s post very relevant to understanding the psychopathy of a killer like Kevin Underwood. He’s not the only one. Just last week another guy in Utah was caught for a very similar crime, except this time it was a 5 year old. And this type of crime doesn’t happen only in the United States, although this is the example of an american.

The following is one of the most amazing things I ever had the opportunity to read relating to crime. The internet made it possible. It is an instant messenger conversation between Kevin Underwood and an internet friend on the night of april 13th, 2006 (the time on the dialogue is wrong). This friend later shared this conversation with the authorities. As Underwood wrote this, he had 10 year old Jamie Bolin’s body hidden in his closet for 24 hours. It would be another 24 before he was caught. Meanwhile, he went on with his life watching more and more people come together to look for Jamie.

Underwood goes by the nickname “subspecies23”.

subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:14:18 PM): I'm glad you're on
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:14:28 PM): Ok, what happened?
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:14:31 PM): I've had a horrible 24 hours
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:14:36 PM): huh???
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:15:11 PM): you know how I said I was going to go to bed early last night? Well, I didn't get to. In fact, I hardly slept at all last night
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:15:30 PM): The girl that lives upstairs from me went missing last night
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:15:43 PM): omg
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:16:02 PM): and I've been worried sick ever since, mainly with the worry that I was going to be named a suspect, and the police would trash my apartment searching it while I was at work
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:16:21 PM): Why would they think YOU a suspect?
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:16:22 PM): as far as anyone can tell, I was the last person to see her before she disappeared
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:16:43 PM): It doesn't matter Kevin....she's missing!
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:16:59 PM): I know I have nothing to worry about, but it's been driving me crazy ever since
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:17:15 PM): If you have nothing to worry about, rest easy.
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:17:34 PM): ever since about 6:30 last night, I've felt like I was only moments away from throwing up. I've hardly ate in 24 hours
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:17:55 PM): Poor girl....UGH
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:18:02 PM): I was out there helping keep watch for her last night, until about 8:00 or so
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:18:15 PM): brb
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:18:17 PM): ok
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:18:27 PM): I do hope they find her!!!!
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:21:48 PM): that was my mom calling about it
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:21:54 PM): Yeah
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:22:11 PM): I kinda figured it was someone like that
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:23:07 PM): so then around 8:00 or so, I tried to go to bed, but couldn't sleep well because of the worrying, and there was a helicoptor flying around all night with a searchlight, and a whole group of people sitting outside all night keeping watch for her, right outside my window pretty much
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:23:25 PM): there's about ten people out there right now, and the helicoptor is still flying around
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:23:48 PM): How old is she around?
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:24:25 PM): Mom said on the news at noon they said they're treating the case as a runaway, and mom called me at work and told me that, and I've been a little less nervous since that. I no longer think the cops are gonne burst in and search the place at any minute
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:24:42 PM): I don't know, but I always figured she was around 12 or 13
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:24:49 PM): a runaway.....omg.....
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:24:53 PM): she better get back home!
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:25:13 PM): yeah, because the last time I saw her, she was riding off on her bike, and that was the last time she was seen. Her bike is still gone
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:25:34 PM): oh noooo!
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:25:42 PM): Is she a small girl?
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:25:50 PM): kinda
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:26:33 PM): the main reason I was worried I'd be a suspect is because I was the last person to see her, and she also talked to me occasionally
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:28:24 PM): well Kevin...you need not worry about that
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:28:31 PM): The last few weeks I've gotten in the habit of hanging out outside my apartment, or just like standing in the open front doorway, and several times she'd stop and talk to me, and one time I was out there with freyja, and she saw freyja and wanted to pet her and stuff, and then later that same day, I was sitting there on the couch for a moment with the front door still open, and the girl just stepped into my apartment and asked if she could hold my rat. So I'm worried my neighbors would've seen all that and suspect me
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:29:02 PM): she seems like a very nice, trusting kid, and that's probably what got her in trouble, if she's not a runaway
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:29:21 PM): Well, the best thing you can do is talk to her parents about all this...that she seems a trusting child
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:29:37 PM): then the night before she went missing, she stopped by my apartment again and asked if she could use my phone
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:30:03 PM): hmmm
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:30:08 PM): tell her parents this!
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:30:30 PM): and I'm afraid the cops would come into my apartment, and see all my knives and swords and the horror movies and documentaries about serial killers on my dvd rack, and suspect me
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:30:55 PM): and there's always blood all over my bedsheets and stuff, but it's my own blood
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:31:05 PM): If they DO suspect you, all you have to do is answer their questions!
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:32:02 PM): yeah, I know. I don't know why it's bothering me so much. I've been so nervous all day, if the cops questioned me, they would think that I did have something to do with it, because of how I was acting
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:32:18 PM): and I can barely keep my food down
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:32:35 PM): I'm a lot better now, but it drove me crazy all night and morning
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:32:56 PM): I hope she's ok.
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:33:11 PM): She looks a lot like Marci. Maybe that's part of what's bothering me
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:33:43 PM): I think it is part of it.
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:34:14 PM): she's got red hair, and kinda reminds me of Marci a little
[Marci is the name of Kevin Underwood's younger sister - thanks Taximom]
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:35:22 PM): oh hun
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:36:15 PM): thanks
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:36:26 PM): you're welcome
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:36:56 PM): even though I'm in a better mood now this afternoon, my stomach still feels a little funny. I think that's just because it's so empty, though
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:37:37 PM): yeah, you need to try and eat
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:37:51 PM): the investigators will do their best
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:38:26 PM): I didn't have any dinner, and I only had like half a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and I didn't even drink the milk from it, I poured it out. Then I just had a six-inch sub from subway for lunch
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:50:32 PM): another phone call, but it was just a stupid telemarketer
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:51:44 PM): man, I just don't know why I was so paranoid about all this earlier. I know I didn't do anything, but I felt like I did. I expected the cops to come in an arrest me at any minute.
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:52:14 PM): it really freaked me out when my boss sent some new guy over to help us. I didn't know who this guy was, and he just walked up to me and said "Kevin Underwood?"
former "friend" (4/13/2006 2:52:35 PM): ohhh, yikes
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 2:53:33 PM): even though just by looking at him you could tell he definitely wasn't a cop or anything, lol. It was some guy, probably about 20, with a goatee, and wearing a t-shirt with a monkey face on it, lol
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:12:08 PM): holy crap! Another phone call! This time it was a wrong number
former "friend" (4/13/2006 3:12:17 PM): lol yikes
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:12:33 PM): in the last two hours I've gotten more phone calls than I normally get in a week
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:12:51 PM): and every time the phone rings, I freak out again a little
former "friend" (4/13/2006 3:13:04 PM): Why not listen to your Ipod then?
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:13:13 PM): I've got itunes running now
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:13:41 PM): I just turned it on about five minutes ago, sitting here in silence was driving me nuts. Thinking too much
former "friend" (4/13/2006 3:14:18 PM): Yeah, it's best to listen to music or watch a movie...maybe even read
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:29:25 PM): and those people are all just sitting right outside my bedroom window, barely a foot from it
former "friend" (4/13/2006 3:29:41 PM): They're worried.
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:30:00 PM): yeah, but I hope they don't sit right outside my window all night
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 3:31:06 PM): They don't seem very worried. They're being loud and laughing a lot
former "friend" (4/13/2006 4:14:17 PM): ok Kevin, I'm gonna go lay down....[name removed] tired
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 4:14:32 PM): I'm probably gonna go to bed early too
former "friend" (4/13/2006 4:14:41 PM): I hope you feel better and that the girl gets found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 4:14:50 PM): goodnight
former "friend" (4/13/2006 4:15:09 PM): take care, and try to talk to her parents sometime soon....that way they will know of what she did before she left
subspecies23 (4/13/2006 4:15:19 PM): ok, bye
former "friend" (4/13/2006 4:15:24 PM): ok bye bye

A curious detail about this case is that Kevin Underwood never finished what he had previously planned to do with his victim. The prosecutor assigned to this case gave a press conference a few days after the discovery of Jamie’s body in Underwood’s apartment. In it, he says the murder of Jamie was part of a plan to not only kill someone, but to rape them, dismember them, eat portions of the body (he was known even to joke about cannibalism) and later dispose of it. The police even found meat tenderizer and barbecue skewers in his apartment, as absurd as it may sound. So this was very thought out. And Kevin Underwood had 48 hours to do what he intended to Jamie’s body.

This sort of violent but careful procedure like a dismemberment requires privacy. I can’t imagine Underwood having plans to take her body elsewhere than his apartment to do it, so we can’t even say he wasn’t expecting the repercussion of the missing girl’s case and therefore had no opportunity to move her body. Murderers that cannibalize their victims remais usually do this at home, it’s a private, intimate moment with the victim. Jamie’s body was found with deep saw marks on her neck, as if Underwood had tried to decapitate her. So he was beginning the process of dismemberment, but something made him stop. I think this previous conversation with his friend helps us see why, and the state of mind that Underwood was in 24 hours after he commited the most violent of acts.

Kevin Underwood is a narcissistic killer. He feels the world has wronged him. He feels he deserves much more than what his life is giving him. That pisses him off profoundly. Like so many other killers like him his emotional behavior tends to go back and forth from being very depressed with the lowest of self esteems to being aggressive, violent, arrogant, with feelings of entitlement and omnipotence. He thinks no one can come close to understanding him, because he’s so complex. He’s not for the ordinary person.

Because this type of killer thinks he’s capable of anything, he very frequently can’t come close to coping with the reality of his actions once it turns to action and leaves the field of fantasy. That may explain Kevin’s behavior with his victim’s body: he was very powerful in his dismemberment fantasies, but an underachiever in real life.

***

Acredito que esse post de hoje é muito importante para se entender a psicopatia de um assassino como Kevin Underwood. Ele não é o único. Semana passada pegaram um cara em Utah, nos EUA, por um crime muito parecido, só de desta vez a vítima foi uma menina de 5 anos. E esse tipo de crime não acontece só nos EUA, apesar de eu estar usando o exemplo de um americano.

O que vem a seguir é uma das coisas mais impressionantes que eu já tive a oportunidade de ler em relação à crimes. Foi possível graças à internet. É uma conversa de msn entre Kevin Underwood e um amigo que ele conheceu na internet, na noite de 13 de Abril de 2006 (a hora na conversa está errada). Esse amigo depois mostrou isso às autoridades, dizendo que tinha achado a conversa estranha já no dia. Enquanto Underwood estava tendo essa conversa com seu amigo, o corpo de Jamie Bolin já estava escondido no seu armário por 24 horas. Mais 24 se passariam até que ele fosse detido pela polícia. Enquanto isso, ele foi levando a sua vida normalmente, assistindo cada vez um maior número de pessoas se mobilizando para encontrar a menina desaparecida.

O nickname usado aqui por Underwood é “subspecies 23”. (a conversa se encontra acima, na versão em inglês).

Um detalhe curioso sobre este crime é que Kevin Underwood não chegou a terminar o que havia previamente planejado fazer com sua vítima. Alguns dias após a prisão de Underwood, o promotor do caso fez uma declaração oficial para a imprensa. Lá ele disse que o assassinato de Jamie foi parte de um plano que envolvia não só matar alguém, mas também violentar, desmembrar o corpo, comer partes do corpo (Underwood era conhecido por fazer piadas de canibalismo) e por fim se desfazer do corpo. A polícia até encontrou um espeto de churrasco e amaciante de carne no seu apartamento, por mais absurdo que isso soe. Portanto, o assassinato cometido contra Jamie foi um evento cuidadosamente planejado. E Kevin Underwood teve 48 horas para fazer o que quisesse com o corpo da vítima.

Esse tipo de procedimento violento mas cuidadoso como um desmembramento requer privacidade. Não parece lógico que Kevin Underwood pretendesse mover o corpo de Jamie de seu apartamento para isso; assassinos que canibalizam a vítima costumam fazer isso em suas casas, é um momento privado e muito íntimo. O corpo de Jamie foi encontrado com profundos cortes no pescoço, como se ele houvesse tentado decapitá-la – mas nenhuma outra marca como esta. Isso sugere que Underwood chegou a iniciar o processo de desmembramento, mas algo o deteve. Eu acredito que essa conversa com seu amigo que acabamos de ler nos ajuda a entender por quê, e o estado de espírito em que Underwood se encontrava 24 horas após ter cometido um ato tão violento.

Kevin Underwood é um assassino narcísico. Ele sente que o mundo está em dívida com ele. Sente que merece muito mais do que a vida lhe oferece. Isso o irrita profundamente. Como tantos assassinos deste tipo que temos conhecimento, o comportamento de Underwood constantemente oscila entre dois momentos: o primeiro, de intensa depressão e baixa auto estima, e o segundo, de agressividade e extrema arrogância, com fantasias de onipotência. Ele pensa que ninguém pode chegar perto de compreendê-lo, por que ele é terrivelmente complexo. Não é um cara comum.

Como esse tipo de assassino pensa que é capaz de qualquer coisa, ele frequentemente não consegue lidar com as consequências das suas ações, no momento em que se tornam ações e saem do campo da fantasia. Isso pode explicar o comportamento de Underwood em relação ao corpo de sua vítima: ele era provavelmente muito poderoso nas suas fantasias de desmembramento, mas acabou por ser um fracasso na vida real.

Kevin Underwood * Case Study * Estudo de Caso

I chose Kevin Underwood’s case to be the first to be discussed here. It’s very recent, and he’s the perfect example of the modern sexually-motivated killer. Later on we’ll be able to discuss with more detail this type of criminal. It’s also a case that shocked me and interested me a lot.

Imagine Kevin Ray Underwood. He’s a regular guy. For starters, he’s 26 years old, that’s exactly my age. He lives alone in a small american town (Purcell, Ohklahoma, to be exact), he’s underpaid and mostly unhappy, he dropped out of college and has no idea where his life is going. Sometimes some few friends come over too and he laughs with them and passes out on the couch from too much drinking. He’s not really close to them though, he probably wants to be – but he met them recently, at work or something like that. He hates his hick neighbors, he’s shy and depressed, he sometimes gains a bit of weight and feels gross, and when he comes home from his unchallenging job he listens to his iTunes and talks to people on the net cause that’s pretty much his social life. He has no direction or guidance, that’s pretty common. He probably comes from a pretty normal family too where there isn’t much dialogue, not much space to work out those natural anxieties and family issues. He has a blog where he tries to talk about stuff, but he also plays a little cool cause he expects to get girls that way. So he’s got his problems and frustrations but for some reason his mind has different ways of working out those issues.

This person needs relief. He even takes some pills at some point, goes to a doctor, thinks he might feel better. From what? From feeling inadequate? From being a loser weird virgin? All girls want to be his friends but no one wants to have sex with him. He starts getting angry - that’s also a pretty ordinary way to handle frustration. But since he’s also a bit cowardly he lashes out his violence only through fantasy. Only through fantasy. So he starts thinking about stuff. Weird stuff. Sexual fantasies start getting violent - and a lonely, sexually deprived young adults fantasises a lot. He probably enjoys the fact that he’s the only one who knows the danger he’s becoming. That makes him feel a little powerful and in control. Fantasies then become a study in violence, until he works up the courage to do the real thing (don’t forget he’s cowardly).

I really don’t know what happened to Kevin Ray Underwood, this is just speculation on my part, based on what I know about this type of criminal and everything I read in the USA news about him. He’s in prison now and there’s a gag order in place so the news won’t talk about him anymore. At least not until his trial comes in, say, a year from now. On April 12th, 2006 a girl living in the same apartment complex as Underwood, 10 year old Jamie Bolin, disappeared and was believed kidnapped. Amber alert and the usual american police and media circus in place, everybody’s frantically looking for the little girl. Underwood can’t even sleep with the noise people organizing search parties are making underneath his window. He volunteers for help, but all we know is that at some point police found him suspicious. Two days after Jamie was reported missing, the police asked him permission to search his apartment, and he agreed. When an officer approached his bedroom closet, apparently he broke down and said, “Open up, she’s in there. I chopped her up.”

And there was hidden the naked body of a 10 year old freckled girl. He hit her a few times on the head with a wooden cutting board. The first words out of her mouth after the attack began was “I’m sorry”. He then covered her mouth with duct tape and pressed his hand over her face, suffocating and killing her. After that was done, he raped her, and started on the process of dismembering her body. He couldn’t go through with it though. Jamie was found with deep saw marks on her neck, as if he had tried to decapitate her, but that was as far as he went. He then dumped her in a plastic tub, along with a towel to soak the blood, and left her there, like that, in his closet, living with him for two days.

More on Underwood later.

***

Escolhi o caso do americano Kevin Underwood para ser o primeiro a ser discutido aqui. É bem recente, e Underwood é o perfeito exemplo do assassino sexualmente motivado. Mais para frente teremos a oportunidade de discutir como são esses criminosos em específico. Além de tudo, é uma história que me chocou muito mas também me deixou muito interessada.

Tentem imaginar esse cara. Kevin Ray Underwood. Ele é um cara comum. Tem 26 anos, exatamente a minha idade. Mora sozinho numa cidadezinha dos EUA (Purcell, Ohklahoma), ganha pouco, vida monótona, largou a faculdade no meio, não se adaptava, não tem idéia do rumo que sua vida está tomando. Às vezes uns amigos vêm em casa, tomam umas com ele e eles apagam no sofá. Apesar dessa demonstração de intimidade eles não são muito íntimos, não de verdade. Pessoas que ele conheceu no trabalho. Ele não gosta dos vizinhos, são uns caipiras, ele acha que ele é melhor; às vezes ele ganha peso e se sente mal, e quando chega em casa do trabalho, liga o seu iTunes e fica conversando com pessoas na internet, que é na verdade o único lugar onde a sua vida afetiva enriquece. Tímido e depressivo, não tem muita direção nem muita orientação, coisa muito comum, aliás. Provavelmente vem de uma família bem normal também, mediana, onde não há todo aquele diálogo nem muita educação afetiva, mas com pessoas relativamente bem formadas e bem informadas.

Essa pessoa precisa de alívio, certo? Ele até tenta tomar antidepressivos por um período, vai se consultar com um psiquiatra, tem esperança, pensa que vai se sentir melhor. Do quê? De se sentir inadequado? De ser estranho, virgem? As meninas querem ser suas amigas mas nunca querem dormir com ele. Ele começa a ficar com raiva – o que é um meio bem comum de lidar com a frustração, um meio que todos nós usamos. Mas como ele tem uma personalidade introvertida e até meio covarde, passiva, ele solta essa agressividade somente através de fantasias, só de fantasias. E então começa a fantasiar bastante, pensar em coisas esquisitas, fantasias sexuais vão ficando cada vez mais esquisitas e violentas – e um moço jovem e solitário, privado de vida sexual, costuma fantasiar bastante. Ele provavelmente gosta da idéia de que ninguém sabe como ele vai se tornando perigoso, a ameaça que ele vai virando em silêncio. Começa a se sentir um pouco mais poderoso e no controle da situação. Suas fantasias começam a se tornar um estudo em violência, uma preparação e um ensaio, até que ele agrupa coragem para começar a realizar o que fantasia (não se esqueça que ele se acovarda fácil).

Eu realmente não sei o que houve com Kevin Underwood, tudo isso é especulação da minha parte, baseado no que sei sobre esse tipo de criminoso e em tudo que consegui ler sobre o caso dele na imprensa americana. Ele está preso agora e existe uma ordem judicial que proíbe a imprensa de discutir casos de crimes hediondos quando estes ainda estão em processo de investigação. Então não se fala mais nele, pelo menos não até seu julgamento começar, coisa que vai acontecer em aproximadamente um ano. No dia 12 de Abril de 2006, Jamie Bolin, uma menina de 10 anos moradora do mesmo complexo de apartamentos onde Underwood morava desapareceu. Acreditava-se que ela havia sido raptada. Com o habitual circo de imprensa e polícia montados em, vamos dizer, coisa de horas, todo mundo começou a procurar loucamente a menina e só se falava nisso. Underwood não podia nem dormir à noite de tanto barulho que o povo fazia embaixo da janela dele, organizando buscas pela menina, fazendo vigílias à luz de velas, madrugada afora. Ele participa da busca, se voluntaria a ajudar, mas o que se sabe hoje é que em determinado momento a polícia começou a desconfiar dele. 48 horas após a menina ter desaparecido, a polícia pede permissão para olhar o apartamento de Kevin Underwood, e ele permite. Quando um policial se aproximava do armário de seu quarto, aparentemente ele não aguentou a tensão e confessou, “pode abrir, ela está aí. Eu cortei ela toda.”

E lá escondido estava o corpo de uma menina sardenta de 10 anos. Ele começou por bater na cabeça dela algumas vezes com uma tábua de madeira. A primeira frase que saiu da boca da menina quando a agressão começou foi “desculpa”. Em seguida, ele tapou sua boca com uma fita isolante e pressionou sua mão sobre seu rosto para sufocá-la – foi quando a menina finalmente morreu. Então ele a violentou, e iniciou o processo de desmembramento de seu corpo. Mas aí parece que ele não pôde ir em frente, por algum motivo, embora se soubesse que essa era sua intenção inicial. Jamie foi encontrada no seu guarda-roupas nua, dentro de uma banheira plástica, junto com uma toalha para conter o sangue, com profundas marcas de serra no pescoço. E lá ela ficou, por dois dias inteiros, morando com ele.

Mais sobre Underwood depois.

The Anti-Social Personality * A Personalidade Anti-Social

“A psychiatric condition, anti-social personality disorder is defined as chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits, or violates the rights of others. Someone with the disorder may break the law repeatedly, lie, get in fights and show a lack of remorse.”

I came across this quote the other day. Can’t remember the source.

Thinking about the anti-social personality is the best way to start thinking about murder and its variations, this type of crime that ends in death. We hear around all sorts of terms like psycho, serial killer, mentally ill, ripper, maniac and so on… and I feel that in fact no one really knows what’s what. The most important thing to know is the anti-social personality disorder and its basic aspects, that is the ample term that best englobes the criminal personality.

The name is self explanatory. The anti-social person is anti-social – they tend to brake society’s rules. And society’s most basic rules (like “it’s not allowed to kill”) exist for a very simple reason, evolutionary even, a natural reason. We can’t just kill each other when we’re pissed because human race would extinct, it’s that simple. The main principle of a society based on rules is to inhibit destructive behavior and encourage constructive behavior.

Obviously today’s social rules end up being far more complex than this, after all we left the caves for the big city, we live in a world where rules are also connected to our emotions. There are more delicate social rules that are here mainly so we behave carefully with others’ feelings. For example, if I’m invited to someone’s house, I will most certainly greet whoever’s there when I arrive. I do this because it is expected of me, because I want people to like me and accept me. Also, in our society it is considered rude not to greet people when you meet them, specially in their homes. And being rude is being aggressive, it is to trample on others’ feelings, and I mind that. So you see. The sociopath, the one with the anti-social personality disorder, usually has a profound disrespect for all social rules, affecting the most basic ones, like “you can’t kill”, and the most sophisticated ones, like minding other people’s feelings. And that is part of who he is.

Since the sociopath doesn’t respect the rules, doesn’t feel respect for them, they’ll have to develop other special resources to cope with our highly social world: they will have to lie well and manipulate well, so others won’t notice their forbidden behavior.

And that is the sociopath in their most basic traits.

***

“Um quadro psiquiátrico, a desordem de personalidade anti-social é definida como o comportamento crônico de manipular, tirar proveito ou violar os direitos dos outros. Alguém com essa desordem pode repetidamente desrespeitar a lei, mentir, se envolver em brigas e mostrar-se desprovido de remorso.”

Me dei com essa citação outro dia. Não me lembro da fonte.

Pensar na personalidade anti-social é o começo para se pensar em assassinato e suas variações, nesse tipo de crime que culmina em morte. A gente ouve termos por aí como psicopata, assassino em série, louco, maníaco, doente mental, e eu sinto que na verdade ninguém sabe muito bem o quê é o quê. O mais importante é saber o que é personalidade anti-social e suas características; esse é o termo mais amplo para se falar da personalidade criminosa.

O próprio nome já dá todas as dicas. O anti-social é anti-social - ou seja, tem uma tendência a se comportar de um modo que costuma ir contra as regras sociais. E as regras sociais mais básicas (como por exemplo, “é proibido matar”) existem por um motivo também básico, evolutivo, da natureza. Não podemos matar uns aos outros num acesso de raiva por que senão a espécie acaba, é simples assim. O princípio de uma sociedade regrada é inibir tudo na gente que quer destruir e incentivar tudo que quer construir.

Claro que as regras sociais acabam sendo muito mais complexas do que isso, afinal saímos das cavernas e nos mudamos para a metrópole, vivemos em um mundo onde regras são ligadas a afetos. Existem regras sociais mais delicadas que servem somente para tomar cuidado com os sentimentos dos outros e manter a boa convivência. Por exemplo, se sou convidada à casa de alguém, tenho que chegar e cumprimentar os presentes com cortesia. Faço isso porque é o que é esperado de mim e tenho vontade que as pessoas gostem de mim, me aceitem. Na nossa sociedade é considerado grosseiro não cumprimentar as pessoas, e ser grosseiro com alguém é ser agressivo, magoa os sentimentos do outro. Pois é. Aquele de personalidade anti-social, o sociopata, em geral tem um profundo desprezo por todo tipo de regra social, das mais básicas como “não pode matar” como as mais sofisticadas, como por exemplo se preocupar e se importar com como o outro está se sentindo.

Como o sociopata não tem respeito pelas regras, e portanto nenhuma motivação interna para acatá-las, será obrigado a desenvolver alguns recursos para viver nesse nosso mundo social: terá que saber mentir e manipular, para que os outros não detectem seu comportamento proibido.

E esse é o sociopata nas suas características mais básicas.

Welcome to The Crime Philosopher!

Neste post inaugural gostaria de explicar aos meus futuros leitores as razões da existência deste blog. Na minha formação e experiência como psicóloga clínica sempre acabei tombando com meu interesse pelo crime e suas relações com a psicopatia. Um interesse e avidez de leitura que vêm desde a minha adolescência, ficou inevitável, somado com meus conhecimentos em psicologia, a minha vontade de compreender, explicar e pensar sobre o assunto. Psicologicamente. E do meu jeito.

Pois então, quem gosta do assunto, entre, comente, coloque as suas idéias e me ajude a filosofar sobre o crime. Posts em inglês e português serão bem vindos.

In this first post I would like to explain to my future readers the reasons for the creation of this blog. Throughout my continuing education and experience as a clinical psychologist I'm always stumbling upon my interest in criminal behavior and its relations with psycopathy. This interest and the constant reading on the subject made it inevitable that I try to understand, explain and think on the subject. Psychologically. And in my own way.

So, for those who like it, feel free to enter, read and comment. Share your ideas and help me be a crime pshilosopher. Posts in english and portuguese are welcome.