Christopher Berry-Dee - Talking With Psychopaths and Savages - A journey into the evil mind

The nave person believes every word but the shrewd one ponders each step. The wise one is cautious and turns away from evil but the stupid one is reckless and over-confident.

Proverbs 14: 1516

I realise that upon reflecting over the many years of research for this book and also during the time I spent writing Talking with Psychopaths and Savages, I almost entered an abyss of darkness; most often a distressing place to be, as the reader will soon realise a world of incalculable heartbreak, broken bodies, and families ruined when precious lives are lost forever.

How does one submit oneself to such a task, you may rightly ask, without the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsches dire warning being taken into account:

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you.

Well, the answer is straightforward enough to explain, for I have enjoyed the support of countless people, organisations and institutions along my journey and they have given up their valuable time without a single complaint along the way. Indeed, were I to list everyone, that is all the law enforcement officers and respective agencies serving many jurisdictions, to include the FBI, FDLE, U.S. Marshals Service and British Police (from as far away as Singapore, Malaysia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and India); correctional staff; judges; attorneys from both defence and prosecution, occasionally psychiatrists more frequently psychologists; court officials and Public Records Departments; all those grimly associated with some of the offenders featured throughout this book; next-of-kin and the killers themselves I could easily have compiled 4,000 words of with thanks to many of them, some of whom you will find mentioned in this book and the other books I have had published by John Blake (London), Virgin Books (London), WH Allen (London) and Ulysses Press (Berkeley, California).

I have also enjoyed immense assistance from the media: accredited newspaper journalists and well-respected investigative reporters, to include Stephen Wright (Daily Mail), from both sides of The Pond, along with TV producers who have taken my work to heart, to include my long-time buddy Frazer Ashford (formerly Crystal Vision), TwoFour Group and ITV.

Where I have mentioned the monster Neville Heath, I drew material from the Murder Casebook series of magazines, for Heath set the historic Gold Standard for the aggressive narcissistic/homicidal psychopathic personality. In this respect what applied to him before his neck was slipped into the hangmans halter in the mid-1940s still holds good today.

Although I have never met Professor Robert Hare, who formulated his PCL-R Checklist (maybe I will bump into him someday), I am also pleased to recommend the author of The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson. Its a most insightful, laid-back read; one that gives a balanced peek into Robert Hares internationally renowned, groundbreaking work. Ronson has also visited the edge of the abyss. Like me, he stepped back and I think that he even questions why he, too, didnt fall in. Very humorous the book is too, says British novelist and journalist Will Self, and I agree. Conversely, the subjects of aggressive narcissism, psychopathy, and savagery are not funny at all, something that I trust this book addresses.

Fortunately for me, I have not fallen into the abyss that constitutes the psychopathic or savage mind, thus I thank everyone for pulling me back when I might have done just that.

CHRISTOPHER BERRY-DEE
former editor-in-chief, The New Criminologist, and director of the Criminology Research Institute (CRI)