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"One reason a murderer may not be able to admit the crime is that admission would destroy his premise of justification." Agents, he had an elaborate answer for each piece of evidence presented. He said friends had given him the 100 pairs of high-heeled shoes in his closet. He argued that photographs found in his possession were not his, because he would not be such a sloppy photographer. He presented extreme detail for each piece of evi­dence brought against him to "prove" why he could not have been the mur­derer.

There also may be cases where the murderer justifies in his own mind the issue of admitting or denying guilt. The following statement from a serial murderer illustrates this position:

Agent: Could the police have done anything for you in order to get a confession?

Subject: Well, at first I didn't admit my guilt. I wouldn't admit to anybody. But I didn't really deny either.

We found that when someone outright denied they had murdered or had anything to do with the crime, the use of an imaginary third person was helpful. The Agents would go through the details of the crime and ask the subject why he thought this third person would commit such an act. This technique projected responsibility or guilt away from the subject and onto someone else. Note this strategy in the following interview by the Agents with a murderer:

Agent: Suppose we do it this way. Let's just divorce you from that situation. I'm sure you've thought about it a lot. Suppose it wasn't you involved and it was someone else. What, in your mind, would be the reasons for someone doing something like that?

Subject: I'd say she either said or did something extremely wrong.

Agent: Like what, for instance?

Subject: Well, it could have been that his [sexual] performance was inadequate. She might have thought it was. Or he might have thought it was and she said something about it.

This conversation illustrates that the murderer was able to provide a reason (sexual inadequacy) for the crime being committed and suggests that the intent to kill was triggered into action through an internal dialog proc ess within the offender.

Often someone who denies justi­fies his or her actions by blaming someone else. In our study, for exam­ple, a murderer justified his killing by describing the victim as a "tramp."

One reason a murderer may not be able to admit the crime is that admis­sion would destroy his premise of jus­tification.

Obtaining information from sus­pects is a critical technique for law enforcement. Well-developed skills in interviewing can provide important in­ formation, which can be linked with crime scene data. Through the use of various interviewing techniques, the investigation can receive maximum benefit from the interview process. Interview techniques discussed in this article have given members of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit new in­ sight for tapping into the fantasy sys­tems of these criminals and for effec­tively dealing with their defenses. FBI'

August 1985/ 31