Killer Stories: Conversations with South African serial murderers.

by Brin Hodgskiss and Nicole Engelbrecht

When I showed this book to a friend her first question was “are they all psychopaths?”
Which sums up what this book is about, because the answer is, “no”.

I went to a launch event for this at the Origins Centre and there the author made the point that this image of serial killers as sexually depraved, psychotic ice-men comes from American true crime shows.
But, American serial murderers are not necessarily the same as South Africa ones (or anywhere else for that matter). The environmental conditions under which they do their crimes is profoundly different. Further that way of thinking of serial murders may be true of some, but Hodgskiss’ work suggests that is over-simplifies the situation.

This book came about through chance. Hodgskiss interviewed many serial murderers as part of his PhD, a project in criminal psychology. The doctorate was written up and finalised, the author went on to pursue a career in crime prevention and the interview tapes languished in storage. Many years later Engelbrecht – a very successful true crime podcaster – found the dissertation and contacted him for more info and this book was born.

It takes the story of a handful of these murderers. Presents a description of their crimes and then Hodgskiss follows up with an analysis of the mindset of the perpetrator as inferred through the interview recordings and his notes. I found the accounts of the crimes to be a good balance between enough details to make the people feel real but also in a detached way that didn’t make the crimes feel too visceral and terrifying. That was my take; however, two other friends on finding the book in my car both opened it at random and exclaimed in horror at what I was reading – maybe neither of them had realised it was true crime and were unprepared for what was between the covers. At times Hodgskiss’s analysis did feel a bit arm-chair diagnosis, especially when talking about inner characters which I cant wrap my head around. But he is clearly and concisely walking the reader down a path of understanding. He breaks down each murderer’s mindset into a characterisation: a fog, isolation, revenge etc. And the thing you take away from each chapter is that in the mind of each of these men their actions were justifiable.

But the book goes still further by exploring what all of these narratives have in common with each other and how they differed from the final murderer, who undertook a redemptive journey.

It has certainly provided me with a lot of food for thought about how we think of ourselves, what is the story I tell about my life. And how those stories can become our reality.

It isn’t a book for everyone, but its well worth the read.