Free Dark Dreams: Sexual Violence, Homicide And The Criminal Mind by Roy Hazelwood, Stephen G. Michaud

that he phoned to tell her about the brown police car and the undercover officers who were watching her at the meeting place. He also warned that if she didn’t cooperate, he would be waiting for her in her home. Finally, he threatened harm. “If you don’t meet voluntarily, I’ll have to force you,” he said.
    He wanted her to believe he knew everything that happened, that he could enter her home at will, and that he was prepared to use whatever force necessary to have his way. To reinforce these messages, a short time later he sent her more cartoons depicting forced abduction, sexual bondage, and rape. Thus did he try to put himself in a position of power and reinforce Mrs. Smith’s fear.
    I was particularly interested that Mrs. Smith heard from her tormentor at unpredictable intervals, from a day or so up to five months apart. In many investigations, overworked investigators too quickly assume that if the UNSUB is not acting out, he has moved, died, been hospitalized, institutionalized, or joined the military. This assumption is usually true, but not always.
    The sexual offender is never fully inactive. He may not be acting out against a specific victim, but he will be making plans, selecting new targets, acting out against other victims, or gathering materials. He is never dormant.
    Johnstone chose not to act until he was ready. There are theories of criminal behavior based on statistical data, but don’t expect the criminals to pay attention to them. Offenders are in charge of their fantasies, and they decide how, when, where, and if they’ll act on them. I once consulted on a serial murder case in Florence, Italy, where the killer struck once every seven years! But his behavior was no less dangerous because of its intermittent nature.
    In my opinion Johnstone realized that his lack of predictability made him more difficult to catch. Not following a pattern accorded him an enhanced sense of control, thus feeding his all-powerful self-perception. When months passed with no developments in the case, the police naturally turned their attention to more urgent matters. The delays between incidents were also a way for Johnstone to manipulate Mrs. Smith. She would live in dread of the next call or package, but when nothing occurred for several months, she allowed herself to hope the nightmare was over. Then suddenly, according to his whim, he would be back in her life, as though no time had passed at all.
    Johnstone was an archetypal ritualistic sexual criminal who put considerable creative thought into his work. Successfully retrieving Mrs. Smith’s two bras from the Salvation Army bin not only underscored how deeply he desired to possess them, but also showed the careful planning he devoted to the scheme.
     
    Thinking criminals are keen students of their own crimes, honing their skills with each offense, learning from their mistakes. But they also reach out for enlightenment wherever it may be found. Like many deviant offenders, Johnstone was an avid consumer of detective magazines. At the time of his arrest, a hundred of them were found in his possession.
    In the Behavioral Science Unit, we called detective magazines “rape and murder manuals.” In fact, it was because detective magazines played such an important role in the cartoon case, that my frequent research partner, the eminent forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz, and I, together with Bruce Harry, another forensic psychiatrist, decided to make a survey of the genre.
    Working with a broad sample of three thousand detective magazines from numerous publishers throughout the United States, we focused on the periodicals’ covers, editorial content, and advertisements.
    Anyone even vaguely familiar with these pulp publications knows the primary theme of their cover art: partially undressed women with frightened expressions, bound by some sort of ligature, and under menace by a weapon-wielding male. The stories tend to be true-crime tales or articles on