Experts tell of rare 'Macho Man' killers

Published On Wed Feb 10 2010

A repeat killer in a decorated uniform? If Col. Russell Williams is guilty, he is an unusual specimen. According to an American criminal profiler, however, he is not entirely unique.

After interviewing 25 serial killers, Deborah Schurman-Kauflin identified a rare type of offender she dubbed the "Macho Man" in a 2005 book – the rarest type in fact, she said Tuesday.

Macho Man killers, she said, tend to be articulate men with significant others who "do well in the workplace," "are drawn to law enforcement or military," display an obsessive-compulsive need for things to be "done a very specific way," "prefer to dress in uniform," and "stand up very straight, even in personal life."

Profiling experts contacted about Williams could only speculate on his psyche. But they offered insights gleaned from knowledge of high-functioning offenders, which may help explain how a top military official could commit heinous crimes – and how a criminal could achieve such prestige in the first place.

Mark Zelig, a forensic psychologist and former Salt Lake City police lieutenant, said many serial offenders are experts in "compartmentalization" who are able to separate their secret deviant behaviour from their respectable daily lives. "If they can't separate it, then their behaviour comes to attention early in life, and they probably never have the opportunity to be coined a serial offender," he said.

Schurman-Kauflin said it would not be surprising if a serial offender fooled military brass into believing he was a good man. "A serial offender who is very organized can hide his dark side," she said. "In fact, he will go out of his way to cultivate relationships with others so that he is viewed in a positive light. Doing so is another way he is expressing his power. He can fool the top guys, and he enjoys doing that."

Schurman-Kauflin, Zelig and Pat Brown, a profiler and U.S. television commentator, said Williams could have been drawn to the military by some of the same traits shared by offenders.

Brown noted that a job as a military officer allows for "a level of extreme power and control," the goal of many sex offenders. Zelig said many serial offenders possess low levels of anxiety; if this were true of Williams, it could partially explain his success as a military pilot. And Schurman-Kauflin said an offender may deliberately seek to attain an elite job because it would "help him in many ways," such as minimizing the possibility he would be suspected of an offence.

"Everything a serial offender does is to further his compulsion to fulfil his deviant desires."

Like the other profilers, Mark Safarik, a consultant who formerly worked for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, said it is likely the offender in the latest crimes has been active for far longer.

Typically, he said, an offender progresses from relatively minor transgressions like prowling or peeping to "fantasy fulfilment," perhaps with willing partners. When "that isn't enough of a thrill," Safarik said, "he crosses over into non-compliant victims."

With files from Cathal Kelly