briefcase containing several well-thumbed erotic magazines. Photos of some members of the deceased’s family were superimposed over some of the erotic pictures.
Investigators surmised that something must have gone wrong with the kidnap plot, something that panicked the abductors, who then fled, leaving their captive to die in the forest.
The theory seemed to fit the facts, and the local pathologist agreed.
Cause of death: exposure.
Manner of death: homicide.
Then a member of the police department who’d attended Roy’s class at Quantico asked Hazelwood to review the case.
After examining the photos of the death scene and reading the police investigative report, Roy noted that both were consistent in every detail with the characteristic features of an accidental autoerotic fatality.
He explained to the police and the local pathologist how it was possible for the victim to bind
himself,
and then pull on the ropes to induce hypoxia.
Unfortunately, it appeared that the businessman’s weight prevented him from also releasing himself. A session of self-arousing sex had cost him his life.
Cause of death: exposure.
Manner of death: accident.
Case closed.
After receiving official Bureau sanction to proceed with his project, Roy began collecting cases for consideration. Altogether, there would be 157 histories included, most of them submitted by U.S. and Canadian police officers who attended classes at Quantico.
From a law enforcement point of view, this approach ensured he’d gather the best possible selection of histories. Students only submitted cases for consultation and discussion at Quantico if they otherwise defied solution, or were so strange that the officer sought enlightenment from experts.
Among the mysteries Roy helped to explain was a college professor discovered dead in full western gear, including chaps, twin .45s in his hip holsters, and a ten-gallon hat on his head. Another victim was found dead in scuba gear. A third was fully attired as a surgeon.
One female victim was dressed as a harem girl.
He was able to show the officers how in each case the individual died of accidental asphyxiation while engaged in dangerous autoerotic acts.
In another consultation, Roy reviewed the death of a black woman, twenty-three, who was found nude in her bathroom, resting on her knees, with her head submerged in the bathtub. Her hands were bound in front of her, and a nine-and-one-half-inch metal bolt, which she had previously inserted within her, lay on the floor beneath her buttocks. A rope was looped around her neck, with the two free ends draped over her right shoulder.
“She is thought to have been engaging in a masochistic fantasy (hence, the bound wrists),” Hazelwood wrote in his analysis, “inducing hypoxia with the neck ligature, when she lost consciousness, falling across the tub and into the water.”
The most violent death was also the most horrible. A young man with a roller-skate-strap fetish trussed his wrists and ankles with twenty-eight of them. Then he lowered himself into a garbage can, buttocks first, with his knees drawn up to his chest, intending to sink to the point where the garbage can constricted his chest and induced hypoxia.
His escape mechanism was a roll of wire standing next to the garbage can. As Roy reconstructed the death, the young man failed to appreciate how low his center of gravity wouldgo, making it impossible to tip over the garbage by grasping the roll of wire.
He died, slowly and painfully, from progressive asphyxiation.
“Neighbors,” says Roy, “reported that they thought they heard a dog howling all night. It was this young man.”
5
Terminal Sex
In October 1979, Dr. Park Dietz, then director of forensic psychiatry at the Bridgewater Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Massachusetts, invited Hazelwood to appear with him on a panel to discuss autoerotic fatalities at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law.
“I