veneno Gu - Capítulo 49
What is the motive for repeatedly killing single women?
{Reported by Yang Ming, this newspaper} From May 31st (Saturday) to July 19th (Saturday) this year, a home invasion murder occurred every two weeks in this city. Because the first two were unsuccessful, it was difficult to determine the perpetrator's motive. However, in the latter two successful cases, two single women died at the hands of the perpetrator, who used a hammer. His targets were both young, single women living on the top floor. Why did he use such cruel methods to kill these innocent women? The suspect has consistently avoided answering police questions on this matter, remaining tight-lipped. Perhaps he thought that as long as he didn't reveal his motive, no one would understand why he murdered two innocent women.
He repeatedly claimed, "You can say I killed someone, but I didn't commit necrophilia," and repeatedly claimed that he was not a sexual pervert.
How should we view his motives for committing the crime?
To this end, the reporter specifically consulted relevant materials.
An FBI criminologist said, "From our prison interviews and research, we've learned that for sex offenders, fantasies always precede the act."
"It is not difficult to see from the criminal descriptions provided by the FBI that perpetrators of sex crimes also like to insert foreign objects into the victim's vagina or cavity when committing the crime."
"According to the FBI's research theory, the act of inserting (or placing) foreign objects into the victim's body is usually committed by disorganized killers. Theoretically, this phenomenon may be called 'regressive necrophilia,' and therefore, this behavior can also be considered a substitute for sexual intercourse."
Since the killer repeatedly inserted fruit knives or beer bottles into the victim's body, based on the experience of criminal psychologists at the FBI, the insertion of foreign objects into the victim's vagina can be considered a substitute for sexual intercourse. Therefore, the motive of this heinous and deranged serial killer is not unclear.
The perpetrator repeatedly claimed it was a home invasion robbery, but he didn't steal much of value. In both completed robberies, he only took the victims' watches and cell phones, nothing else. Regarding this situation, the FBI believes that "some perpetrators try to keep the victims' belongings after the crime; in their eyes, these are 'souvenirs,' items that can remind the perpetrator of the details of the crime, and therefore are invaluable to them."
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How to identify a sexual assault by a psychopathic killer?
It's clear from FBI criminal profiles that perpetrators of sex crimes often insert foreign objects into the victim's vagina or other cavities during the act. Furthermore, these acts are often accompanied by acts of dismemberment, such as cutting the victim with a knife, severing body parts, or biting various parts of the victim's body. These behaviors are most common among disorganized perpetrators. However, these perpetrators often fail to complete the entire sexual assault, so semen is not found in the victim's vagina or other cavities. This doesn't mean they never ejaculated; rather, they mostly ejaculated through masturbation rather than physical contact with the victim. This phenomenon suggests that the act of murder and assault aroused the perpetrator's sexual fantasies, which generated excitement in the perpetrator. Examining their sexual histories reveals that they often resolved their sexual problems independently (through masturbation, etc.), suggesting they had experienced interpersonal difficulties; otherwise, they wouldn't have resorted solely to masturbation. His masturbation occurred after the victim's death, which was the peak of the killer's sexual fantasies.
According to FBI research, inserting (or placing) foreign objects into a victim's body is usually the act of an unorganized killer. Theoretically, this phenomenon could be called "regressive necrophilia," thus it can be considered a substitute for sexual intercourse. On the other hand, through fantasy, these actions of inserting foreign objects into the victim's body cavity become sexual acts, leaving little evidence and leaving investigators clueless. This is why many professionals, such as police investigators, psychiatrists, or psychiatrists involved in homicide assessments, often cannot find evidence of sexual activity at the crime scene. Furthermore, mental health professionals rarely examine crime scene photographs; their understanding of the case relies solely on police descriptions of the murder. These factors often lead to misjudgments—mistaking the insertion of foreign objects into the victim's vagina for dismemberment, not sexual intercourse. Such analyses and investigations naturally deviate significantly from the facts. Therefore, if we can understand that the above behaviors are substitutes for sexual behavior by the perpetrators, criminal investigators can grasp the perpetrators' psychological state more clearly and accurately, and thus find the real culprit by following the clues.
(Excerpt from "Mutant Profiling: FBI Psychological Analyst's Investigative Notes on Abnormal Killers")
Zhao Xiaowei was shocked. The situation was so complicated and terrifying! It was unimaginable. The rumor that the deranged serial killer had stabbed his victim with a fruit knife and inserted it into his genitals the previous time, and then inserted a beer bottle into his genitals the second time, seemed to be true.
She couldn't help but look down again.
The killer preserved the connection between "souvenirs" and sex.
Some perpetrators, after committing a crime, will try to keep the victim's belongings for themselves. In their eyes, these are "souvenirs" (this occurred in 32 out of 118 homicide cases we investigated, a rate of 27%). These items can remind the killer of the detailed events of the crime, making them invaluable to the killer. Of course, possessing these items is like carrying a time bomb—the police could use them as evidence at any time, but this risk is not worth the killer's scorn. From another perspective, these "souvenirs" not only prove that they take their fantasies seriously, but can also serve as a catalyst for their further fantasies.
These "souvenirs" are incredibly diverse in type and style, ranging from the most ordinary items to the most bizarre and unusual things, even rare treasures such as the victim's clothing, jewelry, earrings, watches, and underwear. One murderer was arrested for keeping the victim's car and suitcase as "souvenirs." Other murderers keep photos of their victims; one criminal even carried the victim's photo ID with him. Some famous criminals stripped their victims naked before taking photos of them as souvenirs. As for possessing parts of the victim's body, that's not particularly shocking.
Generally speaking, murderers who keep the victim's belongings are considered fetishists. The things they keep are what they are most obsessed with, and these "souvenirs" have special meaning to them. Of course, this is inseparable from sex. Therefore, the woman's underwear on the victim's body can be considered the most common "souvenir." Although some people do not outwardly show signs of fetishism, they still engage in such behavior. For example, the person in the previous examples who was obsessed with women's high heels was like this. For him, only high heels could provide him with sexual satisfaction and "sexual" interest.
(Excerpt from "Mutant Profiling: FBI Psychological Analyst's Investigative Notes on Abnormal Killers")
Sex-related serial killers pose the most heinous, brutal, and dangerous form of crime, and also pose the greatest threat to public safety. Their actions stem from severe sexual psychological disorders; they are not simply moral depravity or mental illness, and they do not completely lose their ability to recognize or control their actions. Sex-related serial killers often commit crimes repeatedly, exhibiting certain behavioral patterns. Their motives differ from those of typical crimes, making their crimes difficult for ordinary people to understand or predict, thus hindering prevention.
Zhao Xiaowei hadn't expected Yang Ming to have gathered so much information about this psychopathic killer's case; no wonder he was so angry about his article not being published. Actually, it's quite normal for a journalist to have their press release rejected—would such things even be published anyway? It's just that he had so many thoughts on this case he wanted to share, and they were indeed very fresh and interesting.
"How could I possibly send you these things?"
Zhao Xiaowei asked Yang Ming.
Yang Ming laughed heartily, and only after he had finished laughing did he say:
“My dear lady! These things aren’t FBI internal documents; they’re all excerpts I’ve taken from publicly published books and periodicals approved by the Chinese government. What’s wrong with publishing them? How did you become my grandmother?”
"Go away! You're still my grandfather!"
Zhao Xiaowei was so angry that her face turned bright red.
Seeing how angry she was, Yang Ming dared not pay any more attention to her and hurriedly called his teacher.
"Teacher, do you have time? I want to ask you about that strange character."
The other person laughed:
"Go ahead and say it, I'm listening!"
“I heard from my police officer friend that the psychopathic killer has confessed how he wrote that strange character. He said he first drew a 'person' character, then a 'woman' character, then a square below the 'woman' character, and then a cross inside the square. This means that the character above the 'field' character is not the grass radical, but the 'woman' character. So is this character still an alternate form of the '媌' character?”
“The character he mentioned is not a variant of the character ‘媌’. Neither the Kangxi Dictionary nor the Ciyuan Dictionary includes this character.”
Yang Ming was very surprised:
"How come the teacher knows this word as soon as I say it?"
His teacher burst out laughing:
"I looked up this character before, how could I not know it! Why did I look it up? Because of that so-called 'woman' character, do you know how it's written? I've seen a picture, the horizontal stroke is still straight, but the two vertical strokes are written diagonally. The left vertical stroke slants from left to right, and the right vertical stroke slants from right to left, and the two vertical strokes eventually intersect. So, you can see it as either the grass radical or the character 'woman'. That's why I looked it up according to both possible radicals. If it's the grass radical, then it's the variant of the character '媌' that I told you before. If it's the character 'woman', I checked other dictionaries besides the Kangxi Dictionary and the Ciyuan Dictionary, but I couldn't find this character."
"I understand. This means that the word doesn't actually exist; he just wrote it down."
The person on the other end of the phone laughed and then said:
"That's not accurate. Even dictionaries like the *Kangxi Dictionary* and *Ciyuan Dictionary* can't possibly include all Chinese characters, especially variant characters, simplified characters, and those used in folk religions. For example, some characters used in restaurants today are simplified versions of the character for 'wine' (酒) with the water radical (氵) and the character for 'nine' (九); or the character for 'leek' (韭菜) with the grass radical (艹) and the character for 'vegetable' (菜). Some shops even write the character for 'trousers' (裤) with the clothing patch radical and the character for 'husband' (夫); or the character for 'mattress' (酥) with the clothing patch radical and the character for 'entry' (入). These simplified characters used in folk religions aren't included in any dictionary. Many characters used in Taoist talismans are also not typically included in dictionaries. Therefore, the rumor that the murderer wrote the characters on the victim's back as talismans is just one opinion, a guess. Now that he says there's a 'woman' character in the upper right corner, one possibility is that the murderer is lying, deliberately trying to confuse you." The character "云" (yún) could very well be a local folk handwriting style. China is a vast country with rich regional cultures. Although we can't find this character on hand, we can't conclude that it doesn't exist. For now, we can only leave it as a question. Also, do you remember me saying that I don't know the person who wrote this character, nor what crime they committed, but I can venture to say that this person was repressed in life, and must have had feelings of inferiority and fear. That's why they chose such a character to express their contradictory and anxious feelings. They might even have intentionally obscured their expression, trying to lure you into a riddle, deliberately writing the radical to look like both the character for "woman" and the grass radical. Why didn't they use characters that we can immediately recognize and understand? Because they didn't want to tell you their feelings clearly; they didn't want you to guess their thoughts immediately. I suspect they did indeed leave us with a riddle. This person was quite clever.”
"What the teacher said makes a lot of sense, I understand."
“I’ve seen some reports saying he worked in Fujian and Guangdong, which is why he knew this strange, obscure character. But that’s just an inference. Does going to those places guarantee you’ll know the character? Does not going there guarantee you won’t know it? That’s too arbitrary. I’m sure most locals don’t know the character either. Since the murderer knew the character, he must have his reasons. Only he can explain it clearly, but he just doesn’t want to explain it clearly. That’s very much in line with his personality. He likes to make things mysterious.”
"The teacher is right. Every time this person kills someone, he spends a lot of time faking the scene. This shows that he is seeking excitement and mystery and is intentionally creating terror for our city."
"To decipher this strange character, we can only consult experts in ancient writing. However, according to the rules of Chinese character formation, if it is not the grass radical but the character for woman, then we can conclude that the meaning of this character is still related to women."
Qu Baoyuan will soon be executed, and the secret of this strange character will only be buried with him. Who would spend money and effort to find ancient script experts for this strange character? Yang Ming thought that it seemed that the strange character that the murderer scratched on the victim's back could only remain an unsolved mystery.