The Mind of a Killer

by James M. Jackson

It takes an interesting killer to provide a worthy antagonist for a hero. In the Seamus McCree series readers meet two kinds of killers. One is a professional, hired by others to perform a job. Other than in war, most of us couldn’t do it. We talk about such people as “killing machines,” or “without a conscience.” We want to dehumanize them because deep inside we admit that under the right circumstances, we, too, could kill—but that would be different.

A continuing character in the Seamus McCree series is the self-styled “Happy Reaper.” He’s a hired killer who readers first meet in Ant Farm (#1). He returns in Empty Promises (#5) and plays a significant role in False Bottom (#6). [Projected publication date is late 2018.] He’s driven to be the best in the business, and, as we see in Empty Promises, he spends his down time honing his skills. I find one-dimensional hitmen boring. The Happy Reaper has a code of ethics—not like yours and mine, of course—but one he lives by. That makes him more interesting and allows readers and me to explore deeper issues incorporated in the struggle between him and Seamus.

The other killers populating the series are unprofessional. Killing for them is a means unto an end. Sometimes people find themselves backed into a corner and killing becomes (they think) their only way out. Readers can see alternatives, so my task as author is to make a death believable by providing sufficient motivation for the act.

Revenge, which I’ve used as the engine of hate (Bad Policy #2), can be particularly powerful. The event that triggered the revenge can be recent or distant. With distant events, the hurt has had time to fester in a warped mind, magnifying and intensifying the internal damage. I try to put myself in the minds of the killers, to feel their burning need to get even, so when I revel the killer and motivation, the truth explodes on the page fully formed. It’s also important to lay the groundwork in earlier chapters. The reader may be surprised by who done it, but it shouldn’t come as a total shock because the clues were there.

When anger triggers a murder, it is important for the reader to understand why something, perhaps even seemingly trivial, created a lethal response. Was there history between the two? Had the killer been in a similar situation and did not want to repeat the prior outcome? I haven’t dealt with this in my novels, but in real life a mouse of a person who has accepted years of verbal and/or physical domestic abuse, snaps and kills the abuser. To make sense of that as readers, we need to be brought into the mind of the killer, to experience what she experienced, to feel the building rage. Then, although we may abhor both the abuse and the killing, we at least understand the motivation.

The most frightening people for me are those who rationalize that killing others is justified to bring about a better world. Because I fear it, I am also drawn to explore it, which I did in Cabin Fever (#3). To write these killers, I must understand their motivation. I block out my abhorrence for their fanaticism and allow them to explain to me what they find so important about their goals that they can justify using murder as a tactic. Once we’ve had that discussion (all occurring in my head—what does that say about me?), I can allow the character to present his perspective in the novel through his acts, conversations with others, and internal dialog. Understanding the character’s ambition makes their amoral aspect feel more believable when he appoints himself judge, jury, and executioner.

Being able to glimpse the killer’s motivation from their own perspective is one reason I often prefer reading and writing suspense compared to a traditional whodunit. How about you?

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James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree mystery series. Empty Promises, the fifth novel in the series—this one set in the deep woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—is now available. You can sign up for his newsletter and find more information about Jim and his books at https://jamesmjackson.com.

Up Jumped the Murder

My son posed for the body.

I usually know who my murderer is early in the story, and sometimes even before I start. For my first book I wrote a page and a half biography of my murderer before starting or else early in my book. Of course, I added plenty of other suspects so my protagonist, Catherine Jewell, will have a reason to try to figure out who the murderer is because many of the suspects are people she works with and feels a close friendship with.  This is a common reason for amateur sleuths in every mystery of this caliber, but readers seem to be okay with it. In this book, I included two murders both by the same person. Because I’m writing gardening mysteries, each book takes place in a certain month and continues month by month. I started with June

For my second book, which takes place in July, I wrote over six pages of a double spaced story of my murderer and what led him to murder. It was all rational reasoning from his point of view, and as a writer, I could understand how he felt, although it would never lead me to murder.  His first murder may or may not have been a murder, but rather an accident, but he did murder two more people to cover up the first death. Catherine was involved in solving this, but not as much.

For my August book I wrote an even longer biography for the murderer, who ended up poisoning three women of the garden club. I got quite attached to my murderer and hated it when he was exposed although he had to be revealed because murder is never the answer no matter how we might try to rationalize it. At the end I was crying not so much for the murderer as for the family members who had to deal with someone they love being a murderer. When the first murder victim was found in Catherine’s greenhouse,she gets somewhat involved even though the police chief of the small town objects. (a beginning romantic relationship necessary for most cozies).

For my September book I didn’t write a bio for the person I planned to be the murderer. I had all his reasons planned and made notes instead of writing a full biography. However, he was young and enthusiastic about being a Civil War Reenactor. Although he had a really good reason to murder the very nasty guy, I couldn’t have this young college kid end up in prison. So I had to find a new murderer, which I did, but I was equally sad about the one I chose. In this book, I only had one murder. Downsizing, I guess. Catherine wasn’t quite as involved in the investigation.

 

n my October book I wrote no biography for my murderer. I kind of winged it. I knew who I wanted to murder and I did it. I also had a few people who were suspects because the victim wasn’t well liked. The murderer wasn’t very nice, either, but when he told his story at the end, I cried. Until the end, I had no idea what he had been going through, but as many writers will tell you, once you start creating characters, they often tell you their story before you even knew it. Only one murder in this book, too. Maybe I’m mellowing in my old age.

 

In my November book, I had two murders for Police Chief John MacDougal to solve, but one was a twenty-year old skeleton that two kids found in an underground tunnel in the fifth book. The other one was fresh  - a person who returned to his home town after being gone a long time. Catherine got involved with the skeleton when she interviewed an older couple. who worked for the owner of the home who were there at the time of the skeleton’s death. Also, she figured out maybe the nosy kids had found something that might help identify who the skeleton belonged to. They had found a diary that didn’t lead to the murderer, but did identify the victim.

And now we get to my December book, Blood Red Poinsettias, which doesn’t have a cover yet. I knew early on who my victim was. In fact, I came up with a really unique way to murder him. I talked to one of my sisters about it, and she said no way could anyone be murdered that way. I talked to my son, and he said it could be done and described different ways. If any other mystery writer has ever murdered their victim the way I did, I certainly never read about it. I came up with three possible suspects for the murder of a totally likeable victim, and I wasn’t satisfied with any of the three. There is only one victim in this book. One was bad enough.

In a recent class I took with Linda Rodriguez, “First Steps to Writing a Successful Crime Novel” one of the assignments was to write questions about your main character to fill in what they want, what their background is, etc. Because of all the books I’ve written in this series, I pretty much know my main character. So I decided to send my take on the assignment to a man in my writing group, who has an idea for a sci-fi book, but can’t think of how to develop characters. I picked a fictional name for him to write about and sent him ten or twelve questions to answer about this character. I told him I would do the same thing, and we’d share our different visions of Willie Jones at the April meeting. He said he’d try. Well, being a mystery writer, up jumped my murderer as I wrote about this character. Where he came from, what motivates him, and so forth, and I had the murderer for the December book I’m working on.

In my books I usually have victims no reader will care much about and some are really not nice at all. I’ve had a few victims that have made me sad to murder them like in this latest book, but most of those I’ve not developed enough to feel a real connection to them like I have in this latest one. I don’t know what it says about me, but much of the time, I feel sorrier for the murderer at the end of the book – sad that they’ve let their pain, their desires, and whatever else happened in their life to make them turn to murder and ruin their life.

And now I have to give credit to my step-granddaughter, who calls me Killer Grandma, Kristen Fritch for my beautiful covers. - www.fritchieart.com  or art.of.fritchie@gmail.com

If you’re a writer, how do you come up with your murderers?

If you’re not, do you want your murderers to be a totally nasty person?

Why Do People Murder

Doing research for my new book.

I’m working on my fifth book now, Murder in the Corn Maze. Although I’ve created numerous murderers, including those in my short stories, I put more into developing the character for my book murderers. For those murderers I want to know more about what brings him/her to feeling they need to murder the victim.

Even though I’ve read thousands of mysteries over the year and read and hear about killing daily through the news, I decided to see what experts have to say about this.

According to Dr. K. Sohail, author, humanist, speaker and therapist, there are seven reasons why

people kill; personal revenge, serial killers, social violence of gangs, mental illness, political/national violence, violence of religious fundamentalists and international violence.

 

My son willingly posing as a body for the cover of book one.

In “Everyday Psychology” Paul G. Mattiuzzi, PH.D, says there are the chronically aggressive individuals, who are easily frustrated, resent authority, often express passive-aggressive behavior, believe violence and/or aggression are legitimate responses to various problems, and although they won’t admit it, derive pleasure from their aggressive behavior. Often they are stimulus seekers. Usually, the violence occurs during a fight or disagreement.

Then there are the over-controlled hostility types,who rarely displays or expresses anger. They’re rigid and inflexible and very strict about interpreting rules, morally righteous and upstanding and see themselves as “good people.” They’re often judgmental, and could also be a non-assertive or passive type who allows other to take advantage of them, and their anger builds up like in a pressure cooker before they explode. These are the ones in which people say they never expected it.

There are also the hurt and resentful, who feel people walk on them and they’re never treated fairly. They always find other people to blame when things don’t go well for them. They do not accept criticism well, and in response to reprimands, they develop grudges, that are often deeply held. Often they’re whiners and complainers, and sometime wallow in their victimization and are impotent in being able to handle their anger in other ways before their anger erupts into violence.

There are those who have been traumatized by someone and as a victim seek revenge for what their abuser did to them.

The obsessive personality is immature and narcissistic. They crave attention and affection and like a baby, cannot stand to be deprived of what they desire. They’re the ones who make numerous phone calls and often become stalkers, and sometimes may resort to murder if they can’t have the object of their obsession.

There are the paranoid who believe their lover is cheating on them, or think people are out to get them. Sometimes their paranoia escalates to insanity.

A few are actually insane whose delusional beliefs make them incapable of rational behavior.

And there are the just plain bad and angry; a combination of most of the above except insanity. They’re angry, hostile, jealous, resentful, impotent and disturbed individuals, who are socially isolated, socially inadequate, who feel worthless. They may be seeking attention or seeking revenge.

Most of the above I already knew, and I’m sure you did, too. The above descriptions have been abbreviated because of space limits, but it is something to ponder when you create the murderers in your books or stories.

 I don’t create murderers who are psychopaths or mentally ill nor do they fit anything except sometimes the first one on Dr. K. Sohail’s list. My murderers are the ones in real life, who shock people into saying things like, “He was such a nice guy, always helpful and friendly, etc.” Or “I would never have guessed someone like her would murder (whoever they murdered).” I think there are attributes of some of the personality types in Dr. Mattiuzzi’s list of personality types, however.

Although I personally can’t imagine harming someone or something other than a fly or mosquito, etc., I’m sure if it came to protecting myself or someone I love, I could probably do so. Since I don’t own a gun, nor want to, I don’t know how I would do that. I don’t think a fly swatter would work. I imagine I’d all too easily be disarmed if I tried using a knife.  Poison is something I use often in my books or short stories, but that would take premeditation and that I wouldn’t do.

In developing my murderer, I have to give the person a strong motive for murdering their victim. So far I know who my murderer is in this book as well as the victim, but I’m working on developing my murderer’s bio a little more to make him/her a more realistic and believable murderer for me as well as the reader. As for the victim, it’s rare that I have a victim anyone would grieve for. Maybe a family member to a certain extent, but no one the reader would care that much about. In fact, they’re usually not a very nice person so the reader sees their death coming.

Unlike many books, I don’t have the murder happen anywhere near the beginning, although with the title, the reader knows there will be a murder and where it happens. I want to introduce the murderer, the victim, and all the suspects before the murder. And I want to include a few red herrings before and after the murder.  For me, I want to keep the reader guessing as long as possible who the murderer really is. It’s what I like in the mysteries I read, too.

How do you create your murderers if you write mysteries?

Do you prefer psychopaths, mentally ill murderers or the guy next door kind of murderer?

Can you imagine actually killing someone? Why or why not?