Talking with Psychopaths: Beyond Evil

Book excerpt: Bestselling author Christopher Berry-Dee returns with a companion volume that delves even deeper into the evil world of psychopaths and their hideous crimes. In Talking with Psychopaths: Beyond Evil, criminologist Berry-Dee combines sections on killers whom he has known, interviewed, or corresponded with, with studies of psychopathic serial killers from the past, including Peter Kurten, the Dusseldorf Monster; John Christie, a murderer and necrophile; and Neville Heath, a ladykiller in every sense of the word. The result is a chilling narrative that sets the forensic examination of killers and their crimes within the context of murder in the 20th and 21st centuries, and the insoluble problem of identifying these psychopaths. This is not a book for the squeamish but is undeniably fascinating in its portrayal of just what one human being will do to another—while all too often moving among us unnoticed and unhindered. If their crimes seem as incomprehensible as they are horrific, it is undeniably true that the world’s most wicked killers may be much closer than we think.