PredatorsIn the twisted minds of men who murder again and again, life, sex, pain and death are fashioned into a terrible compulsion to kill. Otherwise rather ordinary men, serial killers turn to violence and death in search of power over others and to explore their own monstrous sexual identity. That is what their killing is really all about, although it takes many different forms. Some of these men view women as mere dolls to be terrorized, murdered, violated and then callously dispersed, piece by piece, for wild animals to find.
Others, through a perverse psychological chemistry, for a murderous composite entity - but remain relatively harmless on their own. Men may prey upon other men, often propelled by an aching loneliness. And there are those rare predators who, hunting with the cunning savagery of a forest wolf, stalk through the human herd and attack its weakest members: the homeless, the impaired, the young of both sexes.
Curiously, such men lead more or less normal lives in parallel with their murderous ones. They have parents, fiancees, wives, lovers, childrens, homes, jobs. When apprehended they often reveal a host of "reasons" for their deadly acts:a tyrannical or missing parent, a prostitute's scornful laugh, demons murmuring secretly in their minds. They may even exhibit a self-pitying variant of remorse.
While their behavior has been insane, however, they are rarely locked away in mental institutions. To be judged legally insane, one cannot understand the wrongness or consequences of one's crimes. But these men plan and commit not one but a series of premeditated murders and then skillfully elude capture. They may indeed be compelled to kill, but they are not insane in the eyes of the law. When society finally sweeps up such predators, their very cunning ensures them a life behind bars - or a place on death row.
