By Pat Culverhouse
(Editor’s note: Second part of Phil Chalmers training session on profiling dangerous individuals and predicting violent incidents, presented at Minden police headquarters for local and area officers.)
What makes a serial killer? Phil Chalmers has interviewed enough to know there’s no template for those who seem to be ready and willing to claim multiple victims. But he’s done enough research and personal interviews to know there are warning signs that could be valuable to law enforcement.
“A lot of these serial killers are the result of an unstable home where there has been sexual and/or physical abuse,” Chalmers told a group of law enforcement officers during his recent training seminar. “There has been no parental bonding, some were unwanted children, many have suffered head trauma.”
Research shows 80 percent of serial killers have a prior arrest record, he said. Investigators should learn to recognize some of the habits previously exhibited by killers.
“We know some begin as a peeping Tom, and it escalates,” Chalmers said. “If you get a peeping Tom report, take it seriously. Some are rapists and child molesters.”
Serial killers use a variety of methods to commit their crimes, ranging from guns and knives to strangulation, drowning and beating, he said. And, he noted, their killing technique might change as time goes on.
“If you’re investigating a series of murders, don’t get locked in on one modus operandi,” he said. “They can, and do, change. Stuff happens when you’re killing people.”
Chalmers said the FBI defines a serial killer as one who kill two or more persons over a period of time, often with a cool down period between murders. A mass murderer is one who kills four or more at one location at one time. Both have warning signals and triggers (actions that create a deadly reaction).
Ted Bundy has been called one of the deadliest serial killers in American history, Chalmers said. He admitted to 36 murders, but reportedly told investigators he had 100 killings to his credit, including some children. Other recognizable serial killers like David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), John Wayne Gacy (The Killer Clown) had fewer victims, but like Bundy they received extensive media attention.
Few people may recognize the name Samuel Little, but he could be the country’s most prolific killer. FBI investigators confirmed 60 murders to his credit between 1970 and 2005, but Little has claimed up to 93 victims. Chalmers said all these killers have a common trait: no remorse.
Chalmers accepted a phone call during the training session from another serial killer whose name might not ring a bell outside law enforcement circles. Dell Colvin, a.k.a., The Interstate Strangler, is suspected of killing between 47 and 52 women between 1983 and 2005. He is currently serving multiple life sentences in an Ohio prison.
“Dell was a long-haul truck driver. He would strangle his victims, mostly drug-addicted prostitutes, in the cab of his big-rig truck, transport and dump their bodies in rural, wooded areas between his destinations and dump their clothing in another location,” Chalmers explained.
During his speaker-phone conversation, Dell admitted he killed the women without expressing regret for his actions. At one point, he said he strangled one victim and then dumped “the thing’s” body in a remote location off an interstate highway.
“You notice he did not refer to his victim as a person, but as ‘a thing’ to be discarded,” Chalmers told the class of officers following his phone call. “Like him, serial killers don’t care that it’s a person whose life they’ve ended. They show no regret when talking about what they did.”
Among mass murders, Chalmers said the most deadly was the Harvest Music Festival incident of 2017 in Las Vegas when Stephen Craig Paddock fired more than 1,000 rounds into a crowd from his room in the Mandalay Bay hotel. Sixty persons were killed, another 413 were wounded. No motive has been established.
But mass murderer Brenton Tarrant allegedly was inspired to commit the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s history, Chalmers said. After showing a graphic video of the shooting at the Mosque where 51 Muslim worshipers were slaughtered, Chalmers said there was evidence the video game Modern Warfare was “…inspiration for the Mosque shooting.”
Real life application of imaginary actions in video games was also shown in a dash cam video from a car jacking. In that video, the driver of the stolen vehicle struck and killed a retired police chief who was riding his bicycle. A strikingly similar scene appears on a popular video game, Chalmers pointed out.
“These guys mocked his family at trial,” he said. “Women and cops are killed for sport in video games. Where’s the outrage?”
Not only video games are in the business of promoting and glamorizing violence, Chalmers observed. Hollywood and the media, he said, promote some of the most violent movies one can imagine.
“Some movies we see here cannot be shown in other countries, and they’re getting more graphic as we speak…torture, rape and murder in movies” he said. “Somehow these movies receive an ‘R’ rating, and movies can be Googled where any age can watch.”
Chalmers said he has conducted hundreds of training sessions for law enforcement and many for school officials, showing danger signs that could prevent tragedies. He would like to make sessions available to the average citizen.
“There are precautions for home, school and travel. At home, there is a film that can be applied to your windows that is crash proof. While it isn’t bullet proof, it will not shatter from a bullet and it’s very difficult to break,” he said.
“And guns, dogs and security cameras are things killers do not want to see,” he continued. “I tell people they need to have at least two of these. Dog is the number one thing killers do not want to see.”
Chalmers said many in the public think bad things don’t happen, especially in their neighborhood. But, he pointed to statistics showing at least 50 serial killers operating at any time in the country.
“I believe that number is closer to 100,” he said. “Remember, a person only has to kill two people to qualify as a serial killer.”
Chalmers had a special recommendation for law enforcement officers.
“Get off the Internet for privacy and safety,” he said. “There are at least 50 sites that can show an officer’s name, their family and their address. That does not need to out there where anybody can see it.”