Monster of Monsters
A sexual sadist is someone with "an enduring pattern of arousal in response to sadistic imagery." (Ditz, Hazelwood, and Warren, 1990) This offender achieves gratification from excessive mental and/or physical torture. His fantasies combine sexual acts with domination, degradation, and violence. The victimology is similar to that of an organized sexual homicide. The victim could be a male, female, or child and, in some cases the offender will choose a couple. There may be a resemblance between the victim and someone of significance in the offender's life. The victims are chosen through systematic stalking and surveillance.
The offender will approach his quarry under pretext of offering or requesting assistance, asking directions, or impersonating a police officer. They may pretend to have a serious injury or employ the ruse of being a talent scout, photographer, film agent, and so forth. There will be multiple scenes to these crimes: one for the initial encounter, one for the torture and murder, and a dump site. The scene will be secluded because the killer needs plenty of time and privacy for conducting his sessions of torture. The fantasies of this offender are such that the captivity of his victim can last from just hours to the longest recorded period of six full weeks. The offender's residence may be used as the secondary scene, as it is comfortable and easy for him to control.
The sexually sadistic killer's automobile may be modified to suit his needs. The windows and doors may be disabled, soundproofing measures may be taken, and he may even install police accessories. In preparation, the offender will select his sites well in advance and will build torture racks or special rooms for his murders. He will wear gloves and bring his own implements and weapons. The restraints he uses on his victim will be unnecessarily neat and bindings will be symmetrical. The restraints will be tied in a way that promotes arranging the victim in a variety of positions. The torture will be customized with electrical appliances, vise grips, pliers, and whips. He will have a variety of objects readily available to rape and assault the victim with. He may also defecate or urinate on her.
The body will be concealed, buried, or burned. The victim may be left out in the open to achieve further satisfaction from the shock and publicity of its discovery. The staging will include overkill and depersonalization to obscure the victim's identity. He will stage secondary criminal activity to veil his primary motive. The sexually sadistic killer prioritizes the acts of assault. He prefers anal penetration and forced fellatio over vaginal penetration and object insertion. Most of them force their victims to perform all of these. He engages in live sex because his gratification is derived from the expression of suffering on the victim during torture. He focuses on the battery of the genitals and breasts. Evidence of biting and overkill will concentrate in these areas as well as the thighs, buttocks, neck, and abdomen.
He will use blindfolds and gags, and will leave ligature marks on his victims. It is typical to find wounds of varying ages on the body, indicating repeated beatings and abuse over a period of days or longer. The first wounds begin to heal as later wounds are being inflicted. Murder of this type is eroticized so death is slow, deliberate, and savored by the perpetrator. Great care is taken by this offender not to kill the victim prematurely. His gratification depends on having long periods of time with each victim for continuous torture and assault, so he will take special measures to keep her conscious. He will revive the victim over and over again to prolong her suffering. The eventual cause of death is likely to be ligature or manual strangulation, hanging, or suffocation. Rarely will the actual death be the result of stabbing, blunt force, or gunshots.
The UnSub will be an antisocial white male whose occupation brings him into contact with the public. Half of these UnSubs have children and about 43% of them are married. This UnSub may have a prior arrest record for "unrelated" types of offenses and possibly a history of drug abuse. They are often police buffs that collect paraphernalia, weapons, and literature. His vehicle will be well-maintained because the offender will spend a great deal of time driving to scope out optimal sites for the various stages of his crimes. The sexually sadistic killer will return to the scenes to see if the body has been discovered and to check on the progress of the investigation.
Pedophiles and sexual sadists are the only sexual offenders who enjoy the actual commission of their crimes as much as they enjoy fantasizing about them. They are not remorseful and do not experience guilt. They never recoil at their excesses. For sexual sadists, sex and suffering are inseparable. This paraphilia is unusual, even among sexual criminals. These are marked by wildly complex fantasy worlds, unequaled criminal cunning, paranoia, insatiable sexual hunger, and an enormous capacity for destruction. The more complex the fantasy is, the more complex the crime. The complexity of both is directly related to the intelligence level of the offender.
Sexual Sadists and Pornography
Low order, impulsive criminals use violent pornography reflectively, to construct fantasies around what they observe. More intelligent, ritualistic offenders absorb it inflectively, by incorporating it into an existing fantasy. They select items that most closely complement their fantasies. This results in a signature that is consistent even when the MO changes. They will also use pornography to validate their deviance.
Evidence of Sexual Bondage
Restraints will be used in a manner unnecessary to hold someone still. They may be found on the upper arms, calves, etc. The victim will be bound in a variety of positions. If the bindings reflect care taken with neatness and symmetry also indicate bondage for sexual gratification, rather than restraint. Both wrists may be bound identically or each eye is covered with an exact measurement of white adhesive tape.
Rituals, or signatures, serve to heighten the offender's psychosexual pleasure. Signatures are highly individualized and offender-specific. The level of violence applied by an offender is part of his ritual, not his MO.