Kenny the Making of a Serial Killer 1

by Patrick Laughy

  Dave went straight to the problem and told him his chances of promotion were going to be seriously affected by his stint in Internal if he remained, and he told him why. Dave didn’t fault him for the fact. He simply advised him that Internal was not for everyone and it certainly wasn’t a good spot for a man who didn’t want to hurt his fellow officers’ feelings. His transfer would take place immediately.

  The youngest Detective was another matter.

  After reviewing his file, Dave was a little nonplussed. Lots of commendations, ambitious, good street cop. He was recently new to the squad, having been here only three months. That could be part of the problem. More likely though, it was because the more senior guy he’d just transferred out had been his partner.

  Dave figured that the older Detective had probably been holding the younger one back.

  When he interviewed this detective, Dave didn’t pull any punches. He told him how he saw it and said he wasn’t happy with what appeared to have been going on and that it had to stop. He was prepared to give the younger detective a second chance with a new partner, but if things didn’t radically improve he would transfer him out as well.

  He advised him that considering your own without a hint of bias was not an easy task for any cop, but it was what it was. A bad cop was something no one needed, not the public and certainly not the Department. He made it clear that if the man wanted to stay in Internal, he was going to have to be prepared to see things in that light and honestly do the investigations he was handed.

  If not, Dave didn’t want him. The choice was his.

  On the home front things, if a little hectic, were going well for Dave and Linda.

  After doing the stint in the police unit with Dave, she’d decided it was time to work on her master’s degree in social work. That meant taking courses during the day at the University of British Columbia. To facilitate this, she’d requested and been granted permission to work steady night shifts, and had been transferred to the after-hours Emergency Services Ministry office, which handled juvenile placements and after-hours family counselling and services.

  That also meant working a good number of weekends as well as in the evenings, as that was when the normal Ministry offices were closed.

  Working in Internal, Dave was nine to five Monday to Friday.

  Because of their conflicting schedules, they were often living like ships passing in the night. It wasn’t easy for them, and after a few weeks of it, Linda had offered to drop her schooling for awhile if Dave wanted her to.

  Dave knew Linda well enough to know that she didn’t really want to stop her schooling and he told her that it wouldn’t be forever and they could handle it.

  Despite the shift conflicts, like most newly married couples, they managed to spend quality time together and on any weekend that Linda managed to get off, they rarely got out of bed except to attend to the necessities of eating and visiting the bathroom.

  Having a social worker in the family was very good for Dave; it helped him work through the grieving process. Being able to love again was a bonus he hadn’t even seen coming.

  All in all, life was pretty good.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  - September 1991 -

  By his twelfth birthday Kenny was living a double life.

  He’d accepted his lot in his day-to-day existence because he couldn’t do anything to change it, but he blocked that part out whenever he could and instead, lived in a new and separate fantasy world, a world which allowed him to be in control where he called the shots.

  He’d become a quiet, reserved and unhappy boy who had learned how to fade into the background when in the real world. He was Bob’s pawn and complied with everything the man demanded of him. Now, when Bob came for him, he simply shut down mentally, blocking it all from his mind.

  He’d also managed to expand this new commanding and forceful fictional existence, in which he could escape from the real world, a place where he was in command, where he could deliver pain, injury and death to all who challenged him.

  For a couple of weeks now, he’d been considering broadening his fantasies even more.

  Starting destructive fires was his first innovation.

  Several suspicious blazes in the neighbourhood occurred. Kenny had been careful to cover his tracks on those. Days later he’d strangled and dismembered a neighbourhood cat using a butcher knife.

  Each of these acts had brought him a wonderful sense of expanded power and control. He had spontaneously ejaculated, without manual manipulation, while observing the last two fires rage and during the mutilation of the cat.

  In so doing, he had found a new way to be in full control of at least part of his real life and found it a very wonderful and empowering achievement indeed.

  In general, his day to day real life had changed as well.

  Bob seemed to have Granny in the palm of his hand and now it was he who was making all the important decisions about what went on in the house and with the business. He’d decided they should buy a computer for the business, and promptly went out that day and bought one, arriving back at the house with not only the new machine, but also a brand new pickup truck.

  Obviously, the ex-priest had also found his way into the control of the family chequebook.

  From that point on, the new truck was parked in the garage and the little old Ford was relegated to sitting out on the edge of the circular driveway.

  Bob had also begun to drink heavily and was quite often drunk by evening.

  Granny was now spending a lot of her time in bed, feeling poorly, and any free time she had, she spent in the kitchen. Except for a little cooking, she had little enthusiasm for much of anything.

  The old woman did worry about the boy, however, and took responsibility for his home schooling as Bob had directed. However, when she was with what was now a barely responsive Kenny, she found herself incapable of seriously relating to him, seemingly lost in a sort of dream world and just going though the motions.

  Old Sam had begun to spend most of his time following Kenny around in the house and liked to sleep in Kenny’s room at night. By this point Kenny considered the dog his only real companion.

  But that was about to change as well.

  Bob eventually took note of the time the two now spent together and began to complain that the animal was not well, had begun to stink and should be put out of its misery. A few days later he took the boy and dog out to the front of the property and told Kenny to shoot him with Gordon’s old twenty-two and then made him use the excavator to bury the corpse.

  For a split-second Kenny, who was familiar with, and had used, the gun on several occasions under Gordon’s supervision, thought about turning the weapon on Bob and shooting him instead. But Kenny wasn’t stupid. He knew he wouldn’t get away with shooting the man, so he did as he was asked. Did it without giving the act too much thought.

  He had no real qualms about the execution and found watching the dog die and handling the dead but warm corpse strangely stimulating.

  It gave him an erection.

  The incident wasn’t unsettling to him, and it only served to further confirm to Kenny that anything that warmed to him was destined to die. He thought nothing more of it, but from that day forward Kenny sank even deeper into his fantasy world and rarely left his room.

  A week later Bob began chastising the boy for spending all his free time brooding in his bedroom playing stupid games and avoiding chores. He then decided that Kenny, since he already knew how to operate the dump truck and excavator, should now take over sole responsibility for continuing the process of leveling the property.

  In front of Granny, he told the boy it would do him good to get outside and get a little exercise and fresh air for a change.

  Granny didn’t object; she hadn’t even responded to the comment. At first Kenny, had wanted to rebel against the suggestion, but he quickly realized that it would allow him to get out from under from Bob’s thumb, for at least part of each day.
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  The next morning, after he’d take his lessons with granny, Kenny got together some rain gear and hurried out to the little Ford, and then headed to the yard.

  The rest of that day went well for him. He liked working on his own and while he was out in the bush, no one could intrude upon his fantasy world. That first day, he’d kept at it until the sky had begun to darken with impending dusk and he was forced to accept the fact that he would soon have to return to the house and face the night ahead.

  This knowledge compelled him to reluctantly release his fantasy world and face the inevitable.

  He briefly considered just getting back into little Ford and running away, but lacked the self-confidence to do it. Angry and frustrated by the unfairness of it all, he reluctantly drove the excavator back to the yard and dejectedly headed for the house.

  When he arrived, Bob was sitting on the porch waiting for him. For a few seconds Kenny just sat in the cab staring at the man through the wipers as they slowly brushed back and forth across the windshield and then, accepting the preordained, he sighed deeply, shut the Ford down and got out.

  Bob stood up unsteadily and started right in. His words were slurred and he was obviously half drunk.

  “What the hell have you been playing at boy? Where in Christ’s name have you been? You’ve missed your dinner. Well, now you can bloody well go without.

  “Don’t just stand there gaping like an idiot, get into the house. I have half a mind to take a belt to you. We’ll deal with that later tonight.”

  The Richards family had grown by one, a calico kitten, who they had named Murphy.

  Linda was getting to the end her studies on her Master’s degree and Dave had Internal ticking over like a fine watch.

  In the first six months of his posting to the new job, one of the older Detectives had come up to speed and the other, who had chosen not to change his ways, had been amicably transferred to stolen autos, where he could ride out the rest of his career in happy oblivion.

  Dave had personally selected the man’s replacement and for the past year, that new member of the team seemed to be doing very well.

  All four of his men where showing signs of a committed effort and, as spokesmen for the squad, Dave had managed to keep a good balance with both the media and the public. The Chief and his two deputies were happy, and whenever he needed it he was receiving immediate support from them for any innovation he wanted to introduce.

  The Chief had originally said he would be able to leave after a year, but it had taken a little longer for Dave to makes the changes he wanted, and to assure himself that these had done the job required, so he’d requested to stay with it until that had been achieved.

  When he felt he had met that goal, he was asked where he wanted to go next and he’d chosen to go back to Major Crime. There was currently an opening for a Sergeant in Homicide and he got it.

  He’d no more than settled into his new office when he got called back upstairs for another meeting with the big three.

  The Chief advised him that they were considering sending someone from Homicide down to the FBI academy at Quantico to take a course on Profiling and Serial Killer investigations and asked was he interested?

  He was.

  Three weeks later he was on the course.

  The knowledge he gleaned over the term of the course completely absorbed and fascinated him.

  He learned that the object of profiling criminals was to detect and classify the major personality and behavioral characteristics of an individual based upon analysis of the crime or crimes the person had committed.

  This involved several steps, the first of which was referred to as ‘assimilation’, during which all information available about the crime scene, victim, and witnesses, was carefully examined. This included victim profiles, police reports, crime scene evidence and photos, witness statements and autopsy reports.

  The next phase was coined ‘classification’ and concerned integration of all the information collected into a framework which would allow the classification of the perpetrator as being either ‘organized’ or ‘disorganized’.

  In the case of serial killers, once the killer had been classified, an attempt needed to be made to reconstruct the ‘behavioral sequence’ of the crime. This required a reconstruction of the perpetrator’s ‘modus operandi’. During this process, the profiler had to look for the offender's ‘signature,’ the thing that the perpetrator does to satisfy his or her psychological needs while committing the crime.

  After further study of the ‘MO’, the offender's signature, and an evaluation of any presence of staging of the crime, the profiler then generates the profile. This document would contain detailed information regarding the offender's demographic and family characteristics, any military background, education, and personality characteristics. It would also suggest to the investigator an appropriate interview/interrogation technique, to be used after making the arrest.

  To profile serial killers, it is first necessary to link crimes to a type of common offender. To accomplish this, the type of offender could be determined based on types of action committed at the crime scene. It is of prime importance that this classification be reliable and be verifiable through means of observation or experiment to assign an offender to one group.

  This classification also needs to meet with the assumptions of a typology. It needs to be made according to specific types, occur together frequently, and be distinct from the characteristics specific to any another type.

  The course wound up with a breakdown of how a successful serial killer investigation should be conducted, starting from the top.

  Other than the assignment of knowledgeable and experienced homicide investigators to lead positions in the team, leadership must play a virtually non-existent role in the actual investigation. Its primary task is to establish and reaffirm the primary goal of catching the killer and provide support for the investigators.

  The organization of the structure or task force of an investigation, is key to its success. Serial killers often commit their crimes in more than one law enforcement jurisdiction. Therefore, ensuring information sharing between other agencies and jurisdictions is paramount as is the collecting of all related information into a single location where it can be organized and easily accessed by other jurisdictions who are working toward the goal of arresting an offender. Prior to being formed the need for it should be identified as either long term, or short term.

  Short term needs, like the canvassing of a neighborhood or road blocks should only be called in on a short-term basis. When the task force's framework is expanded to include a new resource on a long-term basis, it should become permanent and not removed.

  The decision of whether resources are needed short or long term must be made personally by the lead investigator.

  If the investigation runs longer than eighteen months, there is a risk of burnout for individual investigators. While it is inadvisable to add and subtract staff from a task force under most conditions, leadership must remain vigilant to ensure that individual burnout in a member is not allowed to occur.

  Inter-departmental and inter-agency communication, is paramount. Fluid communication within the confines of the task force is a no-brainer but it is also important to keep uniformed street patrol cops up to date and in the loop. This can be accomplished by having one or more of the task force team responsible for providing periodic summary briefings to patrol officers and field supervisors. Providing up to date briefings and information to officers on the street almost inevitably improves the chances or picking up solid leads in the case.

  Another important activity in this type of investigation is the management of all the information that flows in to the task force from outside. The investigation of a serial killer generates a staggering amount of data. All of it should be reviewed and analyzed. Therefore, a standardized method of documenting and distributing information must be established up front and investigators must be allowed time to complete re
ports at the end of each shift, after investigating leads.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  - December 1991 -

  Overall, conditions had improved a little for Kenny.

  He enjoyed getting out of the house and away from Bob during the day by spreading the chips and shredded material out in the bush. It allowed him to spend the entire time locked into his fantasy world.

  Bob’s drinking had increased. Not only was he normally drunk by late afternoon, he had taken to heading out to the pub for his dinner and often didn’t return to the house until the early hours of the morning. Often, when he got back he was so drunk that he passed up the bath he normally took before he retired and instead, reeking of booze, passed out on his bed fully clothed.

  Kenny did not miss his nocturnal visitor on these occasions and it made for a definite improvement when it came to the amount of abuse and beatings he had to endure, the situations that he had learned to block from his mind.

  Those visits had become almost nightly, but now were usually only two or three times a week.

  Granny seemed to be a little happier as well now that Bob was away for a good part of the time. She and Kenny sporadically had a chance to regain just a little of what had been their existence before the ex-priest had come into their lives.

  It wasn’t a big change of course. By now, Granny had been browbeaten into the ground by the miserable bastard and what remained of her was only a shell of her original self. But at least it was a small improvement.

  On the other hand, by this point Kenny was spending most of his days deeply embedded inside his fantasy world. He was also spending a lot of that time trying to figure out some way to accomplish the commission of those delicious activities without the cops ever finding out that he’d done it.