The Criminal Man; 15; The True Criminal

What is the relationship of the psychopathic personality to crime? Who is the true criminal? Here are answers to these and similar questions. The criminal man, a series of television studies of how and why people commit crimes and of what to do about it. Your guide for these studies of the criminal man is Dr. Douglas M. Kelly, professor of criminology at the University of California. In this session of our series, Dr. Kelly will continue with study of personality and character problems in relationship to criminal behavior, because the study, the true criminal. The whole problem of criminal behavior and more important, the causes of the criminal man, can be likened to a jigsaw puzzle.

Hard to fit together sometimes, but for example, in our past discussions, we found one piece, the problem of mental illness. We know that mental illness does cause crime in a direct way. It's not a very big part. And then there's another part, the problem of alcoholism and drug addiction. Here again, they have a lot of interrelatedness and a certain amount of specific relationship. Another part, not so important, is the problem of cultural differences. It's not very big as a cause of crime, but we do find it inherent in some criminal patterns. And another part, a little bigger, but again, not terribly large, is the problem of what we call second-hand crime. Those crimes brought about in a second-hand way, like race,

or various areas of living, things like this, where a person reacts against his environment, thereby causing crime. And then of course, there's pretty large part. We haven't discussed it yet. The normal person who gets into difficulty, making up a large percentage of our criminal group, but the whole center of our structure is still missing. The heart of it isn't here, and these are the brutal or the repetitive criminals. The individuals who keep committing the same kind or similar crimes over and over again. These are the people whom we used to call character defects, psychopathic personalities, and now we call character defects or sociopaths. These are our repetitive criminals. They're not very large in number. They make up the heart of our true criminal criminal. The problem of the character defect is inherent in the basic personality development.

And in our previous discussions, we've considered personality development at some length. We've found, for example, that we start with basic sources of energy, Erosanthanatos love and hate. These are controlled by the mother and father patterns, to form certain controls or conscience, or various kinds of barrier, a place we call the super ego. Then the teacher's contribute to this. The child gets older, and he forms an ego, and his associates contribute to it, and eventually we have a total personality. As he develops, we go through infantile, that's when he's a baby, narcissistic, that's when he's fixed within himself, more interested in himself than in others. The edible, that's the term used for attachment to parents. The edible, actually, of course, the child, the boy, for the mother,

a lecturer, the girl, for the father, but it's lumped as edible. Homosexual, not a sexual phase, as we understand it, in talking about sex, but merely a liking or attachment for the same sex, and a heterosexual, a normal endpoint, where the individual is attached to members of the opposite sex. And then we found that a percentage of people tend to fix in this area. We say these people are character defects. Basically, we call them narcissistic people. Now, if we consider their behavioral patterns, we find they have four specific things that you always find. And these four things are typical in little children, and now you find them in the adult, who hasn't gotten beyond being a little child emotionally. First, this individual is self-centered. He's only interested in himself. He doesn't care about the rights, the problems of other people.

Second, this individual is confused in his relation to reality. He fantasies. He tends to confuse reality in daydreams. He lies. When he lies, he frequently, after he lies long enough, really believes the lie. And third, he's impulsive, explodes. He emotionally does whatever he wants, whenever he wants to, without thinking. And finally, he has no feelings of guilt. He believes in a sort of all or none kind of thinking. My thinking is right, your thinking is wrong. Now, this kind of behavior is all perfectly normal for five-year-old. But your character defect is not a five-year-old chronologically. Physically, he's an adult. Intellectually, he's average, or better than average. But emotionally, he behaves like a small child. How does a small child behave when he's in an adult body?

Well, clickly. An author who has written a book called The Mask of Sanity has described 16 characteristics of these people, these people whom we call the character defect. He begins with, first of all, the individual has superficial charm and good intelligence. This, of course, is perfectly normal, because little children are charming, and, of course, his intelligence has no relation to the problem. Then there's an absence of delusions or signs of irrational thinking. This is important. The character defect is not a mentally ill person. He has neither organic damage nor mental illness. So there's no evidence of mental illness in his behavior. He's a defect in development rather than a sickness. Third, there's an absence of nervousness. And this, again, of course, shows no evidence of anxiety or psychonorosis. He has no anxiety.

He knows what he wants when he wants him. He's unreliable. Here, this is a typical behavior pattern of a small child. Little children are not considerable, considered reliable. Adults are supposed to be. Remember, he's a small child in adults body. Five, he's untruthful. This, again, is a characteristic of a narcissistic phase. Remember, the fantasy daydream pattern. Six, he shows a lack of remorse or shame. Here is his narcissism coming out. The I'm right. If I do something, it was the right thing to do. If it went wrong, it must have been somebody else's fault. He uses projection. He projects the blame on other people. No matter what you do when you ask him, he has always been the hero. It's the other people who kept him from succeeding. Many has inadequately motivated social behavior.

Here, again, this is normal because social behavior depends upon the controls. The controls at the super ego level and the controls out here where he doesn't show how he feels. But remember, a person fixed in this area hasn't developed all of these controls. So, of course, he has inadequate social behavior. Then, eight, he has poor judgment. He doesn't learn by experience. This is, again, typical of small children. They live in the present to now. The things that happen yesterday, the things that will happen in the future, these don't exist. So, they don't learn by experience. Small children, that is, and neither do character defects. He has an incapacity for love. And this, again, is inherent in the term narcissistic. He really doesn't have an incapacity for love. He loves himself. But he has an incapacity for love because he's never developed

through the edible, the love of his parents, through the homosexual, the liking or attachment to people of the same sex, or the heterosexual, the attachment to people of the opposite sex. As a result, of course, he loves only himself. Then, he has a poverty in his emotion for the same reason. He has a lack of understanding. When a child does something, they don't feel guilty. He doesn't feel guilty. He lacks technically what we call insight. Next, he shows an unresponsiveness in general situations. This is true of little children. They're only concerned with themselves. Why should they be responsible to others' thoughts? He shows fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink, sometimes without them. When normal people get drunk, sometimes they're not too nice to have around. Your character defect ordinarily becomes extraordinarily disgusting.

And also, he's pretty obnoxious frequently without drink. And then, it suicides or rarely carried out. This, again, is true. Little children, many times, threaten suicide, but they never go through with it. The general idea here is that if I kill myself, then you'll be unhappy. But, unfortunately, I have to stay alive to see you be unhappy. So, the character defect thinks this true, and then he says, well, I'll just threaten it. They threaten a lot, but rarely do it. The sex life is undeveloped. And this is true because he's never gotten through the psychosexual phase. He's still a little child, has no interest in people of the same or the opposite sex. And then, last, cleverly, in his collection of symptoms, says he has a failure to follow a life plan. Now, this, again, is true. You see, this is a little children.

They do what happens to happen that day. They don't plan for the future. And, again, neither does your character defect. And so, he has 16, pretty definite, kinds of symptoms of the behavior of an individual who is classed as a psychopath or a character defect. Most people don't recognize this individual out in reality. As a matter of fact, psychiatry has only begun to recognize it, to consider him as an important problem. And I think, perhaps, we can clarify what he looks like and how he acts by peaking at a few clinical examples. I think, perhaps, the most interesting one I ever encountered was Herman Gurin. Gurin, you'll remember, was the second-in-command to the Nazis in the Third Reich. When I first met Gurin, Gurin was taking drugs. Great many character defects or drug addicts. When I finally took Gurin off of his drugs,

he was most happy. He was delighted. He wanted to reward me. He wanted to give me an emerald ring. When he was captured, he had two, three million dollars in currency and several millions in various bubbles. And he had a great big emerald ring, an inch and a half by two and a half. He wanted to give me this. Of course, I was all for that. But unfortunately, when he surrendered, all the possessions he had became listed as part of the ownership of the United States Army. So I explained this to him. I pointed out he didn't own a thing that closed on his back or by courtesy. And his face fell. Not the reaction of a person popularized, but rather the reaction of a little kid frustrated. And then he brightened up and he said, Doctor, don't you worry, I've got something just as good and he turned and reached in a desk. And he brought out an autographed picture of himself. I don't think it's worth a half million dollars

and this is what we call narcissism. Göring's day dream reality pattern was equally typical. For example, at one time he saw some planes on a drafting board showing by spear the head of their manufacturing group. And immediately he went round to defer and told him that they not only had the planes, they had the planes. And Hitler actually predicated part of his plan for the push to the West Wall on this general theory that Göring simply panicked. His whole life was a fantasy, dressed in a skin, living in a fabulous castle, like a hero from one of the operas. We find Göring typically behaving like a small child. His impetuous impulsiveness was well known. And so in Göring we have a person with good physique, excellent physique, an excellent brain, an IQ of 138 to 140.

This is in the genius bracket. And yet with the behavior reactions of a five-year-old. These people are dangerous with their brains in physique, with their push, with the background of money Göring had. These are the kind of people who will willingly climb over the bodies of half the population if by so doing they can control the other half. These are our most dangerous criminal character defects. Not all character defects, of course, are on such a grand style. It was a matter of fact, thank the Lord, and most of them are. I recall another case, individual named Stephen Nash. Nash is a California problem. Nash was an individual who was a typical character defect, an individual who confessed to killing six people, confessions which were proven,

and he also confessed to a total of 11 individuals, some of whom whose bodies were not found. Nash was an extraordinary person. In Nash, we see no evidence of guilt. For example, we have a film of Nash demonstrating this particular point. In the sequence, Nash, who had confessed to killing an individual in the East Bay across from San Francisco, was being taken up into the hills back of Oakland, found where he had undressed the body and thrown the victim's clothing. The victim had been found tied into a sack floating out in the bay some months previously. Nash had confessed to the crime, and it also described accurately the kind of blows struck so that there was no question, but that he was the killer. On this occasion, he was showing us where he had thrown the victim's clothes. During the entire trip, he was more preoccupied with the press,

more interested in who was taking his picture, more intrigued in what kind of a sensation he was creating than in any evidence of feeling of remorse or sense of guilt. As he went along, he chewed on crackers, posed for the press, and in general had a sort of gala holiday. We find that in this kind of an individual, there is no evidence of concern for what he has done or any feeling of guilt. This all shows shows in his voice. We have a tape recording of Nash confessing to another killing, the killing of a small child in Southern California. He has already told us that he had led the boy down under a bridge onto a large pipe, and as we listen to his own statement and words...

How did you get off of the pipe, man? Five jumps down, he climbed down something else. And tell us what happened, that. Stephen, that was it. You recall where he was having? Somewhere around the stomach. Once there, and once in the throat, that thing. And then what did you do? Then I sent him down, and pushed his face into the sand, stabbed him four or five or six times in the back. Or did he sell these face in the sand for it? It's not the noise. Stop the noise. He was screaming. Screaming? And then what did you do? Be out around there. Did you stay on that side? Did you remove any of these clothing? No. I'll pull that down, really.

This horrible confession of the killing of an innocent child, he stabbed him many times and then went away leaving him to die. Given in a completely unemotional fashion, is again typical of our character defect. Filled with aggressive hatred, Nash cared not, who he killed, nor when. This kind of an individual is ruthless. Interested only in himself, interested in acting only on impulse, such a person represents one of the most criminal criminals in the world. I use this term to separate the character defect as a criminal criminal, a real repetitive criminal from the individual who inadvertently, underpassion or for other reason, slays a fellow man. And so we find a Nash-like enduring, the same characteristics. Now, not all of the character defects, of course, kill. Sometimes they do other things, equally startling,

and quite intriguing. If we take a look at some samples, for example. Good afternoon, I'm Dr. Kelly. How are you? Nice to see you. Kelly, do you say? Yes. I must be Irish. I see how about my car. Well, thank you. I understand you have a little problem. No, no problem at all. Well, they tell me you have been selling some stock. Is that straight? They also tell me the stock is not too good. Oh, no. Who ever told you that? It's a very good stock. Well, I understand. It's Canadian Uranium stock. Do you have some land in Canada? Yes, that's right. Very good land. And a mine? Yes. Well, there is a very good land. Well, do you have a mine on the land for the Uranium? I mean, do you know if there's any Uranium there, really? No, it really isn't yet. But who knows? Well, the certificates, are they good? Yes, it's beautiful. You want to see them. Oh. I don't mean what they look like.

I mean, are they good for Uranium? Well, we represent, we have a combination of people. Very important people. Now, some very important Canadian people and members of... I understand that. They tell me also that in spite of all this background and this money you've been passing some checks. Yeah. Tell me about it. Well, nothing to say. What happened was I ran out of cash. And you know how that happens when it happens to you, too. I'm sure. So I had all my money tied up and there's a big deal. A lot of very important people. Well, when I reached the point where I knew this little cash, I decided I'd like some checks just to carry me over. And that's it. Oh, that's just like it's wrong to ride checks like that? No, because it'll just carry me over. And, as a matter of fact, the time of the something we do for it. Yes. If you could arrange for me to get out of here, I can go out and sell some more uranium stock and get some money and pay these checks off. Poor suckers. I mean, they deserve a better break than that. So they don't have to worry about the check.

I'll see what you're made. Yeah, I think so. We'll find a better check. I'll see what you're made. And here we have a typical character defect. Say, I couldn't interest you in some of this stock. Could I? No, no, thanks. And the individual who is willing to sell stock to almost anybody, stock he knows is worthless. And yet he'll sell the worthless stock to pick up some worthless checks. As a matter of fact, he'll try to sell up to his jailer, his psychiatrist, almost anybody. These kind of individuals again have no sense of right or wrong. I know all of them are smooth as this. Let's take a look at another character defect, a little bit younger. Good afternoon. Well, you're having a little trouble, I understand. Yeah, I'm here for a service station to pick up. I say, is it reasonable? Yeah, except it's a bumpy fits all. Well, tell me a little bit about yourself. First before we get into that, how far did you go to school? Seven to eighth grade, I guess.

Do you know further? No, I've got tired of these, and that's trying to tell me what to do all the time that's all. What'd you do there? Well, just things. You get into trouble, all here and there, I steal some stuff from a store or something. I understand you've put a lot of time in a reformatory. Yeah, about two years. Well, then you got out how soon did anything happen next? How soon before you went back? Well, I got out and I was out about three days. Three days, and you went, what'd you go back for? Well, he stole a car and took a ride. I see, and you've just gotten out again. I understand from your record, how long ago was that? Well, I was out about four days. Four days before this. Yeah. And what happened this time? Well, I went into this service station. I just felt like going up there, and this fellow was paying a customer in change, and I saw the tillers open, so I went up there, and he came in and caught me. I told him to keep still, and I was taking the money, and then he sort of made a dive for me. It's something at least he moved, anyway, I shot him.

Well, did he really dive for you? I don't know, I told him to keep still. That's all the way down for me and out. I told him to keep quiet. It's his own fault if he got shot. Well, I don't even mean it's his own fault. You had the gun he didn't have. Yeah, I told him to keep still, though. Didn't have to keep still, but all right, it's his fault. And if I have to take the wrap and kill him when it's his own fault, I don't know what I'm going to kill him when I get out. That's what I'm going to do. So you don't feel the problem as yours, it's really his. This, again, is typical of your character defect. An individual commits a crime, a shooting, and then puts the blame on the victim because the victim happened to move. No sense of guilt, impulsive, uncontrolled, the character defect. Let's take a look at another one, a little different kind this time. Good afternoon. You seem to be having a small problem, I understand. Well, I don't feel it's a particular problem. I think that there's so much to do being made about it. It's rather ridiculous. Well, they tell me, though, that you're married to several wives. Yes, that's true.

In essence. That might be a problem, I suppose. How many wives are there? Well, it's rather hard to actually remember. I started rather young and doing things such as this. Of course, you generally have to keep moving around pretty well, so it's rather hard to remember the exact number, you understand. Let me say, come on, judge. It might be about 21 or 22. Well, that's a lot. Are you still married to all these girls? That, too, is a little difficult to answer. You see, traveling from state to state and making all parts of the country, it's hard to tell whether the divorces are valid or even whether some of the marriages are valid. But I'm doing my best, of course. Well, traveling as you do, what do you do for living? Well, I live with these ladies who marry me. I feel the time, certainly doing my share and contributing to the happiness of their lives. In other words, you marry a girl who has a fair amount of money and stay with her for a while and then leave her. That's right. I think it's hard on her.

I don't think that they feel that way about it. All the women whom I've known in the past have always seemed very happy and our lives have always been very congenial. They don't seem to resent it at all. I feel as a matter of fact that I'm sort of paying attention to society. You mean you feel you're helping them? Well, naturally. There's so many of them. I wonder how they feel about it. I've got three of them out here. And of course, they know they're all related. I suppose by marriage. Yes. You suppose we bring them in, won't you come in? Yes. You're a man. Come on with me. You're done with me. You're done with me. What have you done to him? So you see, again, a typical problem of an individual and, again, a problem of the people who work with the character defect. They frequently, acting in such a child is friendly way, attract other people. So even though the person is aware that a crime is committed, all free wives know that a crime has happened, they still feel sorry for him. This, again, is quite typical of the psychopath. We've seen then a number of varieties of this kind of individual.

The common characteristic of all these psychopaths, in spite of their variance in shape, sizes, and behaviors, is their childish attitude to the world, their complete immaturity. The last one though showed a special kind of pattern, a sexual problem. Sexual deviation is a problem of the character defect, and it's such an important problem that we'll consider it in our next session. In that session, we will consider the problem of immaturity, the psychopath, or character defect in relation to sexual deviation as we pursue our continued search for the causes of the criminal man. The Criminal Man, a series of television studies of the nature and patterns of criminal behavior. Your guide for these studies of the criminal man is Dr. Douglas M. Kelly,

professor of criminology at the University of California, physician, psychiatrist, and police consultant. Associate producer for the Criminal Man is Ernest Suninol. The Stephen Nash film inserts used in this program were made available through the courtesy of the news department of television station KPIX Westinghouse San Francisco. Appearing in the cast, were Henry Left, Bobby Lyons, Maurice Argent, Richard McCackeren, Jean Copping, and Arlene Weiss. This is National Educational Television. This is National Educational Television.