Savage Spawn Read Free Page B

surprises at any age.
    What turns them on is the kick, the high, the slaking of impulse—pure sensation. Power, dominance, subjugation of the rest of us.
    The
fun
of crime.
    They commit the outrages that we mislabel as “senseless crimes.” We’re wrong about that, just as we are about most of the assumptions we make about psychopathic criminals. Because we view their behavior through the lens of our normalcy, apply
our
moral logic to
their
amoral world.
    Their crimes make
perfect
sense to them.
    Not all gang members are psychopaths. Some are just stupid kids drifting along with a bad crowd, adolescent conformists in lockstep with mean-streets norms, cowards seeking the shelter of group protection, or lonely, neglected, abused kids craving the structure of a surrogate family.
    But gang
leaders
almost always
are
psychopaths.
    Psychopaths may not always pull the trigger—though they have no compunction about doing so. Sometimes it’s simply more convenient to get an underling to do the job. But inevitably they’re the architects of the drive-bys and the holdups, the devisers and contractors of drug scams, con games, protection rackets, killings for hire.
    At the peak of their game, if they’re relatively intelligent, they can attain major positions of leadership—cartel kings, Mafia dons, violent cult leaders, genocidal dictators.
    Think of a cocktail party with Ted Bundy and Vlad the Impaler at the top of the guest list. And, hey, there’s Al Capone sharing trade secrets with Pol Pot, Carlos the Jackal bending elbows with Jack the Ripper and Pablo Escobar, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Gacy discussing art. Wow, look at all those politicians and studio heads, and good old Charles Keating with his Cheshire grin, unperturbed by all those old people plunged into financial ruin. All of them sharing an unbridled lust for power, control, and sensation, as well as a blithe lack of regard for the feelings of others.
    Of course, that would be a psychopathic A-list. The very smartest psychopaths from the most privileged backgrounds often avoid violence, because they know it’s likely to get them into trouble and they have safer means of exploitation at their disposal. Garden-variety psychopaths, lacking the brains, luck, will, and attention span for criminal celebrity or legitimate enterprise, comprise a high proportion of the criminal bourgeoisie, going about their business like any other bunch of working stiffs.
    Conning, robbing, stealing, killing, getting busted, going to jail, getting out, conning, robbing, stealing, killing, getting busted . . .
    Psychopathic tendencies begin very early in life—as young as three—and they endure. The same goes for pathological aggressiveness. One study of coldly, cruelly aggressive children produced clear evidence of violence beginning around the age of six and a half (8). Several reviews of childhood murderers revealed strong patterns of prehomicidal violence by early adolescence, with some kids manifesting frightening tendencies as young as two (9–13).
    Violent sexuality and psychopathy don’t always go together, but when violent sexual imagery is tossed into the psychic mulch that twists the roots of an antisocial youngster, the strangler vine that pokes through often sprouts into a monstrosity well beyond the blackest nightmares created by Dr. Moreau.
    Sexual psychopaths learn to manipulate and victimize early, sniffing out vulnerability and weakness with the acuity of heat-seeking missiles. They begin with victims who can’t complain—animals, and hone their skills tormenting, killing, and mutilating, before moving on to human prey (14).
    They’re the bullies, the stalkers, the malicious sneaks, smooth victimizers like Bundy, able to morph from disarmingly charming conversationalists into purveyors of violence so suddenly that it stuns and incapacitates their victims well before the horror of what’s really happening sinks