[attorney] These human beings who became sacrificial lambs
to Mr. Dahmer's fantasies.
[Dr. De La Torre] In this series,
we look at varying cases of psychopathy.
[Dr. De La Torre] From individuals who are
willing to kill other people to sadistically kidnap them.
[Dr. De La Torre] But there's a much more dangerous subset,
one that you can never see coming,
and that's the sexual psychopath.
[theme music playing]
The thing inside of me, it's like...
the appetite, it's like a wolf that's...
feeling... the hunger.
[Dr. Sahni] In this series, we look at many psychopathic individuals,
people who have not hesitated to harm and murder other people.
And we look at them with a critical eye.
But when we think about these cases, there's one population
of psychopath that continues to show up time and time again.
These are individuals that are motivated
by their own sexual gratification,
their own urges, their own fantasies,
and their own depraved beliefs that creating harm,
force, and fear in others is how they're aroused.
And we call them sexual psychopaths.
[Dr. De La Torre] When we think of
the sexual psychopath, a couple names come to mind.
We have Ted Bundy, we have Jeffrey Dahmer,
We have Richard Ramirez.
All of these individuals have their own distinct way
in which they were crossing the sexual boundary
to include murder.
Everything is really just about the gratification
that it takes.
Now, there's a particular way in which they get there.
Their own unique offense cycle ultimately determines
the style with which they are going to engage
in that sexual boundary crossing behavior
and the types of victims that they'll choose.
In this hour, we're going to look at different approaches
that the sexual psychopath uses
to engage in their deviant behavior,
how they choose their victims,
and more importantly, why they choose their victims.
[dark ambient music playing]
[Dr. Sahni] When we look more closely at the sexual psychopath
and their methodology, how they choose their victims,
we start to see some themes emerge.
One of those themes is the opportunist,
that sexual psychopath who's looking for
the low-hanging fruit.
They don't wanna put in a lot of effort
to seek out their victim,
and they don't wanna put in a lot of effort
to disable their victim.
Oftentimes, the opportunistic sexual psychopath's victims are
young or they're old. They're most often women.
These women are often in marginalized communities,
like prostitution and other kinds of sex work.
They're homeless.
There's just an element in which no one is going
to miss them.
Or no one is really going to be watching out for them.
The functionality of the opportunist's victims selection
is more about the ease with which they can engage
in their compulsive behavior.
When we think of the opportunist approach,
the first name that comes to mind is Jeffrey Dahmer.
[attorney] These human beings
who became sacrificial lambs to Mr. Dahmer's fantasies.
[reporter] Dahmer began having these feelings as a teen
and first acted on them in 1978
when he killed a hitchhiker in Bath, Ohio,
and had sex with his dead body.
After that, Boyle says, Dahmer tried to control
his obsession through substitutions,
like religion, masturbation, and pornography.
Once, he even went to a downtown Milwaukee
department store, and stole a male mannequin.
But Boyle says in 1987, Dahmer could no longer
control his fantasies.
Dahmer just didn't kill anyone off the street.
He picked his victims carefully.
[Dr. De La Torre] Jeffrey Dahmer has been convicted
of the rape, murder, and sometimes cannibalization
of 17 different victims.
His victims have often been young males,
marginalized communities, often black,
but not necessarily homosexual.
His victimology is kind of all over the place,
but the one thing remains the same,
is that they were easy targets,
making them the perfect victims
for the opportunists, whose desire and compulsion
is more about the ease of access as opposed to
harder, more difficult kinds of victims.
We see that same opportunistic approach in the case
of Ryan Riggs.
[reporter #2] This is where the Brown County Sheriff's Department
found the body of Rhonda Chantay Blankinship
on County Road 424.
[reporter #3] Blankinship died from a crushed larynx and blunt force injuries
to her neck, face and torso.
Sheriff Vance Hill says some of those injuries were caused
by a lawnmower blade found near her body.
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter #4] Brown County law enforcement arrested
21-year-old Ryan Riggs last week for capital murder.
The break in the case came when the sheriff's office
released a computerized sketch of Riggs, using his DNA.
Blankinship and Riggs went to the same church.
[reporter #5] Riggs then went before the entire congregation
and confessed to killing fellow church member
Chantay Blankinship, before turning himself in.
[Dr. Sahni] Riggs says it all.
An opportunistic sexual psychopath
is somebody who's gonna go after a victim
because they can.
It's an easy victim to access, it's an easy victim
to lure away, and it's somebody that they don't have to put
a lot of brain cells and energy into getting in their prey.
Chantay was an easy victim because she knew him,
she trusted him, she was physically petite
and small, and she was also special needs, cognitively.
And this is consistent with what we see
with sexual psychopaths.
They tend to pick victims who are vulnerable.
The opportunistic offender in particular relies on that.
The actions have very little to do with Chantay.
It's not personal, per se.
She is the easy target and victim to fit
into Ryan Riggs' fantasy.
So in one sense, what makes it really disturbing
when we think about it is that she doesn't really mean
anything to him at all.
Her life and death are not meaningful to him
in any way, other than that they help him
act out a fantasy that he has in his head.
[Dr. Sahni] What I think we see is the birth
of a sexual psychopath in Ryan Riggs.
He tried a variety of different things
to see what kind of torture was gonna be gratifying to him,
what was gonna create
the most force or fear in the victim.
And it's important to realize
that giving in to the sexual gratification,
that poor impulse control, that moment
that Ryan Riggs said, "I'm gonna give in to these fantasies,"
he didn't have a plan for how he was gonna do it.
[Dr. Sahni] While Riggs was an opportunistic sexual psychopath,
we also know that some sexual psychopaths
are far more elaborate. They're far more sophisticated.
And the predatory component is far stronger
in these individuals. They're organized.
The thrill of the chase is part and parcel
of their sexual arousal.
They don't experience gratification
if that part doesn't happen.
The predatory component, the hunt,
becomes most important to them.
And that is when we think about the sexual psychopath
who's the hunter.
[Dr. Morgan] Up in Anchorage, Alaska,
between 1972 and 1983,
Robert Hansen was able to rape and murder
at least 17 women and children in those years,
and that his style was that of the psychosexual predator,
the psychopath who hunts.
[Dr. De La Torre] For sexual psychopaths like Hansen,
what we see is that it's not simply
the sexual boundary crossing behavior.
It's not just the assault and the rape.
Yes, that was gratifying.
But the real thrill came in releasing the victims
into the wild so that he could hunt them down
like they were animals.
In Hansen's mind, he believes himself to be
the ultimate predator, the apex predator.
And women, children, doesn't really matter.
Anyone on the fringes of society are the prey for him.
Because it's not just simply a thrill-seeking behavior.
It is engaging in the thrill-seeking behavior
as a method with which they're going to engage
in the sadistic nature
of whatever violent fantasies they have.
And we see the same approach in the case of Richard White.
[dark music playing]
[Dr. De La Torre] He simply describes her in the things
that he noticed about her,
as opposed to what made her another human being.
And I think that's telling because he doesn't see
them as human beings.
These are prey for him to engage in his hunter approach.
These aren't real people.
They're just animals for him to slaughter.
[Dr. De La Torre] His interactions with the sex workers
are about the sexual gratification,
but it's the hunt that makes him the sexual psychopath.
It's the hunt that really gets him going.
It's the hunt that really allows his arousal to achieve
its peak, as opposed to simply engaging in sexual behaviors.
There is an addictive aspect to it, but I think we need to be
careful when we're describing the addiction element.
It makes it sound like it's a disease.
It's not a disease. It's a compulsion.
He doesn't have to do it. He wants to do it.
He wants to have sex with these women.
He wants to violate them.
He wants to hunt them down and kill them
simply because he can.
[Dr. Sahni] What is important to realize is that Richard White
fully acknowledges that this is
what he got up and went to bed for,
every single day, was the hunt.
If he wasn't busy doing something,
he was out on this street
hunting these women, driving around
looking for his next victim.
He was methodical, he was precise,
and he was deliberate.
This is someone who maintained a level of control
and impulse control over his actions and his urges
and his fantasies.
[Dr. De La Torre] So for the hunter, we see the individual
is getting most of their arousal from the hunting process.
We see certain sadistic elements, but they're only
there as ancillary aspects.
They don't necessarily need to be there.
Evolving from the hunter approach is where it's not only
just about hunting and stalking their victims.
It's about torturing them, over a prolonged period of time.
It is making sure they are no longer human
when the sexual psychopath is done with them.
We call these types of offenders, "the sadists."
[reporter] Richard Ramirez, a drifter from El Paso, Texas,
and a self-described Satan worshiper,
began his reign of terror in June 1984,
when he murdered 79-year-old Jennie Vincow
in her apartment in Glassell Park.
By the time of his arrest 14 months later,
Ramirez had gone on a killing rampage so grisly
that deputy district attorney said Ramirez
had probably rewritten the book on serial murders.
[Dr. Morgan] Richard Ramirez is also known as the Night Stalker,
terrorized the community by stalking people,
hunting them down.
The experience for him was all about getting a victim
that then he could torture and use for his own pleasure.
That's where he found his satisfaction,
in doing ritualistic torture and rape on his victims.
[Dr. Sahni] The nature of his criminal activity had
the entire Los Angeles area in a state of fear and panic.
People didn't know if it was OK
to leave their windows open,
and the Night Stalker wanted it that way.
This is a good example of where the sadist gains power
over their victims
before sometimes they even catch them.
And for the truly sadistic offender,
they draw out that pain. They draw out that fear.
They don't worry about the harm it causes that individual.
But the more pain, the more fear, the more torture,
that they expose their victim to,
the more arousing it is for them.
That is their primary goal,
to ensure that their sexual arousal is met.
And we see this in the case of Jeremiah Connelly.
[somber music playing]
[Dr. Morgan] So with the sadist sexual psychopath,
remember the salient element is enjoying the suffering
of other people or the emotional turmoil of other people.
And one way that they can relive that is by telling
the story again to the police or by instilling
in their interviewers shock, horror, or dismay.
And he's not telling the story all at once.
He throws little bits and pieces out there,
and I think it's for to control their emotions.
This is what the sadist will do.
They wanna control and enjoy the distress
in another human being.
[Dr. Sahni] While Connelly gives some gestures of caring
about the victim and shows some superficial attempts
at remorse, what becomes very clear as we learn
about the details of his crime is that he really didn't care
about the victim. She was an object to him.
And ultimately, it was about getting his own way.
It was about maintaining the status quo
based on a fantasy that he had built in his head,
that this relationship was something he wanted,
he deserved, he was entitled to it, and he was gonna get it.
I think there are multiple things that are happening
when it comes to his animation.
It's something that he typically is.
I think in his everyday life, he is this elevated.
But he's also excited
because he engaged in this behavior,
didn't recognize how much he wanted to engage
in this behavior.
And now he's describing it to law enforcement officers.
So, now he's getting the double whammy of reliving it,
but also psychologically torturing them,
as he describes it play by play.
[Dr. Morgan] The sadist will set up an idea
in the mind of the victim,
like where things are gonna go.
And it is for the purpose, then,
of causing them more distress or torturing them.
So in this phase, he's promising her,
"Yeah, you'll go home eventually."
It's raising hope.
But he's gonna hold out the promise so that he can
enhance her suffering and then eventually announce to her
what is going to happen to her so that he can actually enjoy
her realization that, you know,
it's not gonna turn out well.
The decision to smother a victim by covering her face
with duct tape serves no other purpose than to distance
himself from her humanity because he doesn't have to look
at her face,
and to prolong her death and dying process.
Instead of it being a quick kill,
the sexual psychopath and the sadistic psychopath
wants a slow death,
wants that slow torture and torment.
And that's exactly what Connelly got by making that decision.
[Dr. De La Torre] This whole thing with Connelly started because Wilcoxen had
rejected all of his overtures to move in with him.
What Wilcoxen didn't know was that there was an underlying
desire by Connelly to hurt people.
There is another approach in which that initial rejection
compels the person to engage in sexually violent acts.
But the primary driving force is that of revenge.
Sexual psychopaths who are triggered
by feelings of rejection, feelings of abandonment,
feelings that they're losing control
over a relationship or being left,
are individuals that are what we think of as "the rejected."
[reporter] Serial killer Ted Bundy is talking,
confessing to murder after murder,
giving investigators grisly details
of a decade-long cross-country crime spree.
Bundy tells of a murder and describes himself
in the third person.
[man speaking]
[reporter] Bundy has been convicted of three murders,
confessed to a dozen more, and is still a suspect
in another two dozen.
The victims were all young, pretty,
and with long, dark hair.
[Dr. Sahni] Ted Bundy was responsible for raping
and killing over 30 women,
and there were many crimes that went unsolved
that likely were attributed to him as well.
And what we know about Ted Bundy
is he's a perfect example
of a sexual psychopath who was rejected.
[Dr. De La Torre] For Ted Bundy, we see his rejected approach
starts with his college girlfriend, Diane Edwards,
who broke up with him.
It's not surprising, then, that his victimology
closely matched that of Diane Edwards.
He was specifically looking to take revenge out on her,
as often as he can,
matching their ages,
matching their hairstyles, everything perfect
so that he can violate her over and over and over again.
The rejected sexual psychopath is oftentimes not driven
by a direct need for sexual gratification
that has to do with physical arousal.
It has much more to do with preserving their ego,
preserving their sense of power and control,
preserving their sense that they're OK.
In other words, helping to maintain
that their narcissistic view of themselves is correct.
When we think about the rejected sexual psychopath,
we also think about the case of James Barnes.
[somber music playing]
[Dr. Sahni] She left enough of an impression on him
that he became focused on her and had no choice
but to annihilate her.
And that deep level of rejection and anger
and animosity that James Barnes exhibited in his crime
and how he killed Patricia Miller is consistent
with the sexual psychopath who feels rejected.
Their drive isn't necessarily sexual arousal.
The sexual arousal may have been a secondary gain.
But realistically, it likely was more about increasing
the fear that she felt, increasing the pain she felt,
increasing the power and control over her.
And how a rejected sexual psychopath takes back control,
resumes homeostasis on their ego and their narcissism
and grandiosity, is to pretend that everything is fine.
Barnes can't even just admit and say,
"I was mad at her 'cause I made a pass.
She didn't accept it. I got rejected."
That's a blow to the ego, right?
To admit I was turned down.
And these are the kinds of psychopaths who can't take
that kind of rejection.
It cuts very deep, and they're offended,
and then they're enraged by it, which is then why
someone has to suffer.
[Dr. Sahni] The fact that Barnes is willing to discuss
the painful details and the graphic details
of the crime itself that led to Patricia Miller's death,
but he won't discuss what led up to it,
and he won't discuss what happened afterward,
or the fact that she humiliated him,
that she brought him some pain.
Barnes can't tolerate that level of shame.
He can't tolerate that level of humiliation and rejection.
And when we see the rejected sexual psychopath,
this is precisely what we're talking about.
Their ego can't handle reality, and their ego can't handle
how fragile it really is.
[Dr. De La Torre] Sex is a primary motivator for nearly everyone's behaviors.
The only reason why people do anything is probably
because it's sex related.
I think, though, what separates the sexual psychopath
from the regular human being,
from the prototypical psychopath,
is the compulsion.
Sex is always on their mind.
The deviant ways in which they can engage
in their sexual behaviors
are constantly fantasized and masturbated to.
The rest of us, even the prototypical psychopath,
can have motivators outside of sex.
We can do things simply because it's a fun thing to do.
For the sexual psychopath, however, everything is deviant.
Everything is about gaining power and control,
of exacting revenge,
of bringing attention to whatever slight has happened
to them, to their fragile narcissistic ego.
So for them, it's not just that sex is a primary motivator
it's that the violation needs
to be associated with that.
And that violation is whatever the fantasy is.
The sexual psychopath has no boundary or limits
to what they will do and what steps they will take
to harm another person to meet their own sexual needs,
to achieve and maintain their own sexual gratification.
And it is because of that lack of a boundary
that we should absolutely regard these individuals
in this category of psychopaths as some of the highest risk
and most feared in society.