What You See May Not Be What You See
Ellyn picked up her small daughter and headed out to work. The bus dropped her and her daughter off at the brightly lit main square where the midday crowds of tourists walked and talked. Her job depended on these people, and she was looking forward to a good afternoon.
A crowd had formed at the corner of Main and First, blocking her way. Winding through the crowd she saw that a game of three-card monte was in progress. Tourists are warned to avoid this swindle, but there is always someone in the crowd who is sucked in. The game works like this: The dealer has three cards face-up on a small table; one is a face card, either a king, queen, or jack, and the other two are number cards. He (or sometimes she) flips them over, facedown, moves them around quickly on the tabletop, and then stops. The dealer, using a nonstop and entertaining patter, invites crowd members to bet on which one of the cards is the face card. Eventually, some onlooker decides that his or her eye is quicker than the dealer’s hands and places a bet. No one but the dealer ever wins this game.
After every couple of hands, the onlookers reshuffle and those at the back get up to the front near the table. Ellyn made it to the front. The dealer smiled and began talking directly to her daughter. “You’re such a pretty girl; and smart too, just like your mommy! I bet you’re going to go to college someday!” This playful chatter continued with others near the front when unintentionally a card bounced over and back, briefly revealing its face. The dealer quickly tried to move the cards about, but Ellyn and a few others saw every move.
“I’m in!” shouted Ellyn nervously. “I want to bet.”
“How much?” asked the dealer tentatively, as the crowd moved in closer to see what was going on. Ellyn had her rent money with her, and doubling at least some of it would surely help with the bills. She thought and thought. “Are you going to bet or not?” shouted the dealer.
“Yes, yes, a hundred dollars!” Those closest to the action held their breath. Ellyn didn’t look like she had a hundred dollars to her name, let alone the ability to bet that much on a street game. The dealer balked—he would have to double her money if she won—but the crowd spoke up. “Let her play!” some shouted. “Yeah, take the bet!” more joined in. The dealer looked nervous.
“Okay, okay,” he said, “show me your money.” Ellyn looked nervous. “Go ahead, show him your money,” someone said from the crowd behind her. Reaching into her shirtfront, she pulled the hundred-dollar bill out and held it in front of her. “Pick your card,” he said, and Ellyn did.
It seemed like slow motion, but in reality, the next few moments happened very, very quickly. The dealer flipped the card Ellyn chose and it was the seven of diamonds; he flipped the one next to it and it was the king of clubs. Ellyn had lost. Then someone from the back of the crowd yelled, “Cops!” The dealer snatched the hundred-dollar bill from Ellyn, quickly folded his card table, and disappeared with his accomplices into the moving horde of tourists and visitors. Ellyn just stood there. She was in shock. Tears welled up in her eyes. “My rent money!” she whimpered. Some in the crowd left shaking their heads. An elderly woman in an old blue coat tried to comfort Ellyn and patted her little daughter on the head. She took a ten-dollar bill from her purse and gave it to Ellyn. A few others did the same, but these gestures of altruism and goodwill could not make up for all the lost rent money or the shame of having fallen for one of the oldest scams around. This con, as with many others, skillfully uses basic human nature against the unsuspecting target.
The fact that between 1 and 2 percent of the population have psychopathic personalities suggests (perhaps almost guarantees) that most of us will come across at least one psychopath during a typical day. However, the ability of clever psychopaths to hide their true nature makes it difficult to tell them from others one might meet on the street. Although we actually observed the events described in the case above on a street corner in a major American city, we lack the information needed to determine if the person is a psychopath or just a crook. For all we know, this is a case of a petty criminal (three-card monte is illegal in this eastern US city) conning the curious and the gullible into parting with their money. While tourists may find that such “slice of life” experiences make interesting stories to tell friends back home, the fact is that a crime was committed.
Are Psychopaths More Skillful than the Rest of Us?
Interactions with a Psychopath
Our point is that several abilities—skills, actually—make it difficult to see psychopaths for who they are. First, they have a talent for “reading people” and for sizing them up quickly. They identify a person’s likes and dislikes, motives, needs, weak spots, and vulnerabilities. They know how to play on our emotions. We all have “buttons” that can be pushed, and psychopaths, more than most people, are always ready to push them (we will speak more about this in a subsequent chapter). Second, many psychopaths have excellent oral communication skills. They can jump right into a conversation without the social inhibitions that hamper most people. They make use of the fact that the content of a message is less important than its delivery. A confident, aggressive delivery style—larded with jargon, clichés, and flowery phrases—makes up for the lack of substance and sincerity in their interactions with others. This skill, coupled with the belief that they deserve whatever they can take, allows psychopaths to use effectively what they learn about a person against the person as they interact with him or her—they know what to say and how to say it to exert influence. Third, they are masters of managing the impressions of others; their insight into the psyche of others combined with a superficial—but convincing—verbal fluency allows them to change their personas skillfully as it suits the situation and their game plan. They have an ability to don many masks, change “who they are” depending upon the person with whom they are interacting, and make themselves appear likable to their intended victim. Few will suspect that they are dealing with a psychopath who is playing up to their particular personality and vulnerabilities. In the great card game of life, psychopaths know what cards you hold, and they cheat.
Researchers who interact with known psychopaths regularly describe them as social chameleons. Chameleons, of course, have the capacity to assume the coloration of their environment in order to survive. When clinging to either a leaf or branch, they turn green or brown, using their ability to change the color of their skin to blend into their surroundings. Thus, using nature’s protection, they can remain invisible to their enemies, yet can sneak up on unsuspecting insects that make up their diet. They are the perfect invisible predator. Like chameleons, psychopaths can hide who they really are and mask their true intentions from their victims for extended periods. The psychopath is a near-perfect invisible human predator.
This is not to say that most people cannot be charming, effective, socially facile communicators and still be honest—of course, they can. Many people use impression management and manipulation techniques to influence others to like and trust them, or to get what they want from people—very often subconsciously, but sometimes as the result of training, practice, and planning. However, wanting people to like and respect you (and doing what it takes to achieve this) is not necessarily dishonest or insincere—the need for approval and validation from others is normal. Social manipulation begins to be insincere if you really do not care about the feelings of others or you try to take unfair advantage of others. The difference between the psychopathic approach and the non-psychopathic approach lies in motivation to take unfair and callous advantage of people. Psychopaths simply do not care if what they say and do hurts people as long as they get what they want, and they are very good at hiding this fact. Given his or her powerful manipulation skills, it is little wonder why seeing a “psychopathic personality” beneath a charming, engaging surface is so difficult to do. See S 3.1: Using What You Have.
Not all psychopaths are smooth operators, though. Some do not possess enough social or communicative skill or education to interact seamlessly with others. Instead, they rely on threats, coercion, intimidation, and violence to get what they want. This book is less about them than about those who are capable of and willing to use their “deadly charm” to con and manipulate others. However, if the charming approach does not work, psychopaths readily escalate into both covert and overt intimidation. See S 3.2: Red-Collar Criminals.
Psychopathy and Narcissism
It is important to note that psychopathy is a personality disorder, and that personality disorders are not the same as mental illness. At a basic level, a person with a personality disorder has a limited range of stereotyped “solutions” that are applied to most of the problems encountered in life. Those without a personality disorder are able to apply a variety of behaviors, depending on what best suits the situation.
Individuals with a personality disorder sometimes have trouble in life because of their limited perspective and somewhat inflexible approach. They have difficulty navigating through a world that does not operate in the one-way fashion they prefer, while those who know them may see them as closed-minded, predictable, and sometimes, unfortunately, annoying.
There are ten personality disorders recognized by the DSMs, including narcissistic personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder, which are important to understand, as they relate to psychopathy.
For example, narcissistic personality disorder involves an excessive need for admiration and a sense of superiority, among other traits. DSM-51 describes someone with narcissistic personality disorder as displaying a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, sense of entitlement, and lack of empathy.
Narcissists think that everything that happens around them, in fact, everything that others say and do, is or should be about them. In social situations where this is not the case, they will take action to become the center of attention, such as hogging the conversation or belittling others while praising themselves. Narcissistic people lack other choices in their behavioral repertoire, like paying attention to the needs and wants of others, “sharing the floor,” and negotiating with others for attention and feedback. Being narcissistic is not necessarily a bad thing, according to true narcissists, as they see pathological self-admiration as merely a natural reaction to their obvious perfection. After all, “What’s not to like about me?” Some narcissists even may complain that their talent and beauty are burdens they must bear!
Narcissists have difficulty learning alternative behaviors; but over time, and with some assistance, they can learn to moderate their behaviors and the negative effect they have on others. The real problem for others is when narcissistic features, especially a sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy, shade into antisocial and destructive behaviors. When this happens, the pattern may be aggressive or malignant narcissism, which is difficult to distinguish from psychopathy.
Histrionic personality disorder also shares some traits and characteristics with the psychopath, the two most salient being emotionality and a need for approval that others find excessive. These individuals come across as overly dramatic, emotional, and possibly theatrical. They sometimes dress and act flirtatiously in an attempt to garner attention. Unlike the narcissist, though, they do not always need to feel superior—they will accept a supportive role, if available, which can provide them with the psychological support they crave.
The number of individuals who can be diagnosed with true narcissistic (only 1 percent of the general population) or histrionic (2 to 3 percent) personality disorders is small. In fact, many more individuals appear as “narcissistic” or “histrionic” to those around them than actually have these disorders. Unfortunately, we view some psychopaths as narcissistic or histrionic because of the self-centered or emotional features they display in public rather than their hidden side, which takes much longer to discern. This makes diagnosis difficult and often confusing for those with limited face-to-face experience with these individuals. Even psychologists or psychiatrists trained in the diagnosis of personality disorders can struggle with differentiating psychopathy from other personality disorders that share overlapping traits.2 It is only after considerable analysis that the other features that define the psychopathic syndrome can be discerned beneath the overt narcissism and drama.
Note: The above is a simplified explanation of personality disorders. We direct interested readers to the DSM-5 for a more complete discussion of similarities and differences among personality disorders.
The Psychopath in Motion
Psychopaths are master manipulators and game players; they will use every trick in the book to achieve their goals. The traits and characteristics noted by Hare and Cleckley serve them well, particularly if explained in the context in which they play out in their daily lives. Understanding how they perform in public and how they interact with others—which we label the psychopath in motion—can help one begin to catch a glimpse of the real person behind the charming façade and, we hope, will help the reader mount a defense against their clever manipulations.
We begin by looking at the strategies and tactics used as part of a three-phase psychopathic manipulation process, a natural manifestation of their personality that often is more automatic than consciously planned out.
Phase 1: Assessment
Psychopaths like to play games with people. The chance to con and manipulate others is a primary motivator. They often are on the lookout for individuals to swindle or scam, and this first phase of psychopathic manipulation involves identifying and then assessing targets or prey. Most psychopaths are opportunistic, aggressive predators who will take advantage of almost anyone they meet, while others are more planful, lying in wait for the perfect, innocent victim to cross their path. In either case, the psychopath is constantly sizing up the potential usefulness of individuals they meet as sources of money, power, sex, or influence. People who have power, celebrity, or high social status are particularly attractive. See S 3.1: Using What You Have.
In the business world, it is relatively easy to spot those in power—big offices and fancy titles are obvious ways to help us identify who’s who in an organization. However, do not think that just because you don’t have a big office or title you lack power or assets that a psychopath might find useful. Are you a secretary who controls access to your boss and his or her calendar? Are you a union representative who can smooth over employee conflicts and difficulties? Are you plugged into the grapevine in your company, and do you have access to information circulated to everyone in the know? Alternatively, maybe you are the person in the mailroom who goes the extra mile to make sure important documents reach their destinations on time. These are examples of informal power, which a clever psychopath can leverage to further their larger, self-serving objectives.
In addition to assessing the potential utility of others, psychopaths assess their emotional weak points and psychological defenses in order to work out a plan of attack. Individual psychopaths do this in different ways and to varying degrees because their own personal style, experience, and preference play a role in this assessment as well. Some psychopaths enjoy a strong challenge, such as that posed by a confident, uber-wealthy celebrity or an astute professional or executive with a strong ego. Others prefer to prey on people who are lonely, in need of emotional support and companionship, the elderly on fixed incomes, the underage and naive, or those recently hurt or victimized by others. Although the usefulness of this latter group may not appear to be obvious from a strictly monetary standpoint, their perceived “ease” of approach makes them attractive to the criminal psychopath who weighs the investment in time and energy.
Several psychopathic traits and characteristics are apparent in this phase. On the surface, psychopaths generally come across in public as being at the top of their game, wearing the suit of success. However, they are actually playing out a parasitic lifestyle. They prefer living off the work of others rather than their own efforts, so actually being a drifter, moocher, or wastrel is a common lifestyle choice despite a façade to the contrary. They have no misgivings about asking for and often demanding financial support from other people. Sometimes, the target is a family member or friend, but it can easily be a stranger whom they seduce or con into providing food, shelter, and a source of income. Now, it is not unusual, or wrong, for people to rely on the help of others, including public aid, during rough times in their lives, but psychopaths remorselessly use others even when able-bodied and capable of supporting themselves. Not all psychopaths are unemployed, of course. Indeed, we have conducted much of our recent research in businesses and government. However, as we shall see, even psychopaths who have jobs mooch off others in overt and covert ways; they take from coworkers and employers alike.
Characteristically, the economic and emotional impact of their parasitic behavior on others is irrelevant to them, in part because they believe everyone in this dog-eat-dog world is as greedy and unfeeling as they are. They also seem unable to construct an accurate picture of others’ emotional depth, wrongly assuming that the emotional life of everyone else is as shallow and barren as their own. In psychopaths’ mental world people do not exist except as objects, targets, and obstacles. This is one of the most difficult features of the psychopath’s mind for most people to come to grips with (or said another way: wrap their minds around). They truly lack the emotions of guilt, remorse, and empathy. Some might suggest that psychopaths are such effective predators because they are not plagued by doubts and concerns raised by a conscience.
In addition to their parasitic nature and lack of an emotional life, there is evidence that psychopaths need considerable novel stimulation to keep from becoming bored. This need, which recent research suggests may be rooted in their brain physiology, often leads them to search for new and exciting opportunities and to move casually from relationship to relationship, and job to job. Most people are able to endure tedium and hard work over long periods in order to do significant things in their lives, such as completing a college degree, apprenticing, or working at an entry-level job in hope of a promotion. Psychopaths search for easier routes to the same ends; they have very poor frustration tolerance. A surprisingly large number do manage to graduate from college or obtain professional credentials (many in our research possess graduate school, medical, or law degrees, among others), but in most cases their credentials are gained less through hard work and dedication than through cheating, getting others to do their work, and “working the system.”
This trait is visible on the job, as they tend to avoid tasks that become monotonous or difficult, or that need some long-term, serious commitment to complete. They cannot imagine how or why anyone would work hard—or wait their turn—for anything they wanted. Their need for stimulation is apparent in a penchant for high-risk, thrill-seeking behaviors. Many non-psychopathic people seek the adrenaline rush associated with such behaviors, especially in sports activities, but unlike psychopaths, they typically do so by evaluating the risks to themselves and to others, and without putting others in harm’s way. Sadly, for society, the psychopath’s need for stimulation shades easily into antisocial and criminal behavior.
Psychopaths have a great sense of superiority and entitlement. Their grandiose sense of self leads them to believe that other people exist just to take care of them and think nothing of helping themselves to property that belongs to others. Because they see most people as weak, inferior, and easy to deceive, psychopathic con artists will often tell you that their victims deserved what they got. Sometimes their sense of superiority is so great that they will say that they are conferring a gift by letting their victims support them. This is obvious in the many cases of cult leaders who are charlatans or outright psychopaths, but is visible in more subtle cases as well. This condescending air toward others comes across as cocky and egotistical to many observers, but, as we will discuss below, some may find this behavior somewhat charming, even charismatic.
Phase 2: Manipulation
Following the identification of individuals who may be useful to them and assessing their vulnerabilities, psychopaths begin to weave a shroud of charm and deceit that we have labeled the psychopathic fiction. This is the beginning of the Manipulation phase.
Their first goal here is to gain the trust of the target individual. One of the most effective skills psychopaths use to get the trust of people is their ability to charm them through ingratiation and various impression-management techniques. They have an engaging manner and make great first impressions on people. With this first impression, they begin to build an elaborate fictitious persona. We will go into greater detail later explaining how this is done, but, in general, psychopaths can come across as strong, naive, dominant, honest, submissive, trustworthy, worldly, or whatever they believe will get others to respond positively to manipulative overtures. Some rely on social stereotypes to help them create a useful façade. For example, they might foster impressions of a suffering artist, a misunderstood spouse, a successful businessperson, a celebrity, a member of a respected profession, or a person with connections to the rich, the famous, or the infamous.
Granted, some psychopaths lay the charm on too thick, coming across as glib, superficial, and unconvincing. However, the truly talented ones have raised their ability to charm people to that of an art, even priding themselves on (and often bragging about) their ability to fool people by presenting a fictional self that is convincing. Psychopaths do naturally what some politicians, salespersons, and promoters have to work hard to achieve, such as getting people to believe what they say. In criminal cases, it is sometimes only after the authorities uncover some heinous crime or masterful deceit that they question a psychopath’s charming mask of sincerity, integrity, and honesty. In less dramatic cases, it may still take a lot of daily exposure before the façade becomes transparent to a few studious observers, but this rarely happens with most people with whom they interact as their targets become more and more enthralled with their psychopathic fiction.
What contributes significantly to their success in engendering trust in their victims is their almost pathological ability to lie with impunity, without any hesitation. Unencumbered by social anxieties, fear of being found out, empathy, remorse, or guilt—some of nature’s brake pedals for antisocial behavior in humans—psychopaths tell tales so believable, so entertaining, so creative, that many listeners instinctively trust them.
One might think that a long series of lies would eventually become transparent, leading to unmasking the psychopath, but this is rarely the case. The reason most observers do not see through the lies is that many psychopathic lies serve both to allay the doubts or concerns of the victim and to bolster the psychopathic fiction. Their often theatrical, yet convincing stories reinforce an environment of trust and genuine delight, leading most people to accept them exactly as whom they appear to be—and almost unconsciously excuse any inconsistencies they might have noted. If someone challenges them or catches them in a lie, psychopaths are not embarrassed. They simply change or elaborate on the story line to weave together all the misarranged details into a believable fabric. Well-practiced oral communication skills make this endless stream of disinformation seem believable, sensible, and logical. Some psychopaths are so good at this that they can create a veritable Shangri-La view of their world in the minds of others, a view that they almost seem to believe themselves.
Surprisingly, psychopaths can lie convincingly to people who already know the truth about what they are saying. Victims often come to doubt their own knowledge of the truth and change their own views to believe what the psychopath tells them rather than what they know to be true. Such is the power of psychopathic manipulation. Some psychopaths are proud of this expertise, making fun of their victims’ gullibility and often bragging about how they fooled this person and that person. To give the devil his due, in many cases, this self-praise is justified.
It is not clear to researchers whether psychopaths lie because it is an effective tactic to get what they want or the act of lying itself is pleasurable, or both. It could be that psychopaths fail to learn the importance of honesty in their youth, and learn, instead, the utility of lying to get what they want from others. However, in the typical child, lying and storytelling lessen with age, while psychopaths continue through adulthood. They do not see the value of telling the truth over lying unless it will help get them what they want; it is a business decision.
The difference between psychopathic lies and those told by others is that the latter typically are less calculated and destructive. They also are far less pervasive (you may only tell an occasional lie) than psychopathic lies. For example, men trying to talk a woman into going on a date, adolescents working their parents over to obtain permission to go to a party, a businessman trying to close a deal, and a politician trying to get elected may use a variety of lies (white and black lies) to attain their goals. However, unlike psychopaths, cynical, facile lying is not an integral, systemic part of their personality, and it does not coexist with the other features that define psychopathy.
Another characteristic of psychopaths is an ability to avoid taking responsibility for things they do that go wrong; instead, they blame others, circumstances, personality clashes, fate, and so forth. They have an impressive supply of excuses for why they are not to blame for anything that they have said or done to hurt someone else. Interestingly, pointing the finger at others can also serve their manipulative plan well, especially if well executed, as it can be used to elevate their own image while spreading disparaging information about rivals and detractors. They do this by positioning their blame of others as a display of loyalty to the listener. That is, psychopaths appear to be helping or protecting the individual from harm by passing the blame on to a third party. In many organizations, there are coworkers who distrust the company or are angry about something that happened to them. By joining in blaming of the system, the company, or even society as a whole, for things that have gone wrong, psychopaths can garner support for their own agenda.
Not surprisingly, even those psychopaths who admit to involvement in a crime will minimize the negative impact on the victims and may even blame them for their own misfortune, offering convincing reasons why they got what they deserved!
As the manipulation phase forms the bulk of the psychopath’s machinations, we will spend considerable time in subsequent chapters drilling down into the strategies and tactics that they use.
Phase 3: Abandonment
Once psychopaths have drained all the value from their victim, they abandon that victim and move on to someone else. Abandonment is typically abrupt—the psychopath just disappears one day—and it often occurs without the current victim even realizing the psychopath has been looking for someone new to use.
In crimes such as identity theft, credit card fraud, and construction swindles, the psychopath typically reappears with a new identity in another geographic location to prey on new victims. The arrival of the Internet has made the psychopathic criminal’s life easier, as running and hiding occur at the flip of a switch, and targets are plentiful, readily accessible, and anonymous.
To be able to abandon people in such a callous and harmful manner, one must be immune to the feelings of those one hurts. Psychopaths can easily do this because they develop poor or weak emotional and social attachments with others. Most people feel at least a twinge of guilt or regret if they have hurt someone. Psychopaths have only a vague appreciation of these concepts, and sometimes find the idea of guilt or remorse an amusing weakness the rest of us possess—something that they can use to their advantage. It also makes it easy for psychopaths to move others around as if they were objects or pawns. Psychopaths are better at understanding the intellectual or cognitive lives of others than they are at understanding their own emotional life. Consequently, people have value only for what they can provide. Once used, discard them.
Over the course of their lifetime, the Assessment-Manipulation-Abandonment process leads to predictable outcomes. First, psychopaths have many short-term relationships over the course of their lives. They may approach many individuals offering “commitment,” but then leave when their usefulness has expired. This results in a series of traditional and common-law marriages, short-term live-in relationships, and so forth. They often leave behind a trail of jilted lovers, possibly abused ex-spouses, and unsupported children. Occasionally, this pattern of behavior leads to a reputation as a “player,” and some psychopaths will even promote these reputations themselves to build up their status and mystique. Unfortunately, for the psychopaths’ partners, these relationships are one-sided and often plagued by intimidation, abuse, and violence. Sadly, as many as one in five persistent spouse abusers have psychopathic personalities. Many avoid prison by taking part in court-mandated treatment programs that do them or their partners no good. Others quite effectively manipulate attorneys, judges, therapists, and court-appointed guardians and get away scot-free.
Second, despite the claims to the contrary, psychopaths typically do not have practicable long-term career or life goals. Rather, a series of unconnected, randomly selected jobs defines their work history. Despite the lack of a real career, psychopaths will claim all sorts of goals and achievements, and weave a career “history” so convincing that others believe the success they profess to have attained in their lives. In the business world, these fictitious achievements find their way into a memorialized résumé filled with self-generated letters of commendation (using the names of friends as references) and fake awards. Even psychopaths who choose a criminal career lack clear goals and objectives, getting involved in a wide variety of opportunistic offenses rather than specializing in the way that typical career criminals do. This is an outcome of their impulsivity, poor behavioral controls, and low frustration tolerance.
To summarize, first psychopaths assess the value or utility of individuals, and identify their psychological strengths and weaknesses. Second, they manipulate the targets (turning them into victims) by feeding them carefully crafted messages (the psychopathic fiction) designed to build and maintain control. They then drain them of psychical, psychological, emotional, and financial resources. Third, they leave the drained and bewildered victims when they are bored or otherwise through with them.
Discussion Questions
S 3.1
Using What You Have
If they happen to be intelligent, “well bred,” and physically attractive, psychopaths can have a devastating impact on the people they meet.
For example, Caroline is a very attractive and intelligent fifty-year-old British woman. Her father was a barrister and her mother a successful stage performer. Caroline went to several of the best schools but seldom stayed at any one of them for very long. She got into some minor difficulties on occasion—for example, she was unable to account for some missing money during her volunteer work for a charitable organization—but was always bailed out by her parents. She moved in fashionable circles, where she had many brief affairs.
By the age of thirty, Caroline was part of a pseudo-religious cult, and her “direct line to the saints” helped her to manipulate elderly people into “buying their own little piece of heaven.” Later, she met an international smuggler and this led to her first prison term, a three-year sentence for diamond smuggling. She is a delightful conversationalist, exuding an engaging charm and wit that keeps you captivated for hours. Her description of her current circumstances and the events that led up to them has an almost romantic quality. Caroline likes the fast life and loves excitement. For the past two decades, she has been combining those interests as a diamond smuggler, making regular runs between Johannesburg, New York, Tel Aviv, and Amsterdam, and packing thousands of dollars’ worth of diamonds on each trip.
Caroline’s unusual occupation—simply the latest in a long string of profitable scams and cons—rewarded her in two ways: it provided her with a substantial income to support her lavish lifestyle, and simultaneously was a constant source of excitement. Caroline stated that walking through an airport with thousands of dollars’ worth of smuggled diamonds was a tremendous thrill, “an incomparable rush.” When first caught, by a married customs agent, she was able to convince him not to turn her in and ended up having a brief affair with him. She later turned him in as part of a plea bargain when she was caught a second time. Although he lost his family, his job, and his reputation, she was unmoved: “He had a good time; now the party’s over.”
Her only regret was that her days as a runner were probably over now that Interpol knew about her. She had vague plans to become a stockbroker or a real estate agent. Meanwhile, she was working on a scheme for deportation to England, in hopes that it would lead to a reduced sentence. In a letter to a British official about this matter, Caroline suggested that his wife or girlfriend might like a “little sparkling something on her finger,” and that she “could easily arrange this for him.” The ploy failed, and she managed to avoid legal action for bribery. Her current situation and whereabouts are unknown.
S 3.2
Red-Collar Criminals
In May 2003, I (Hare) was just about to begin an invited address to the Western Psychological Association Conference in Vancouver. The title of the address was Snakes in Suits: When psychopaths go to work (a prescient title!). Del Paulhus had introduced me as moving my research from prisons to the workplace. Before I could start, two sheriffs approached and asked if I was Dr. Robert Hare. I confirmed that I was, and they promptly served me with a subpoena. I didn’t have my reading glasses on, but could make out the number $250,000. I commented to Del that perhaps he had been premature in where I would take my work. The subpoena was from an attorney in the United States, imprisoned for embezzling money from his client and then killing her to cover up his fraud. I had described the case in Without Conscience, and the attorney used this as a basis for suing me because the judge, sheriff, and prosecutor in the case had referred to the passage to support their opposition to the attorney’s request for a transfer to a minimum-security facility. The attorney had drawn up the subpoena himself in October 2002, but it was not delivered to me until May of 2003. As it turned out, the attorney had died in December. The court decided that the case was without merit.
I mention this because the crimes of the attorney are in line with recent research on what criminal trial lawyer and fraud researcher Frank Perri refers to as red-collar criminals.3 The term refers to white-collar criminals who commit fraud on a client and then resort to homicide to prevent the victim from detecting or reporting the fraud. Perri presented many cases of this sort of homicide, and concluded that most of the perpetrators were highly psychopathic. Based on an examination of their backgrounds, Perri and his colleague argued that these persons did not act out of character when they committed murder.4 “In fact, quite the opposite holds true: the capacity to kill without remorse was a seed inherent in the red-collar criminal that germinated when the proper conditions surfaced” (p. 21).