Alongside these core principles, I also tend to avoid particular types of potential victims who could be especially troublesome. These include: drug lords, Mafia bosses or their families; people with elite MMA skills; anyone with a fighting dog in the home; HIV carriers; Vinnie Jones.
What makes a good victim?
The answer to this question depends a lot on you. You may have a particular type of person that you intend to target. You may, for example, want to rid the world of lecherous men. I jest, of course—there’d be none of us left. As well as any agenda you may have, you also need to be guided by your own physicality and competence level. As your skills grow, you can select more challenging victims, but I’ll give some general guidance here.
When considering your victims, their personality is as important as their physicality. By far the best victims are those who are highly suggestible. This type of person is far more likely to enter a victim mindset, where they will basically do anything you tell them right up to the point they’re sure you’re going to kill them.
Compliant victims almost always guarantee a smooth kill.
You can identify more compliant personalities in a variety of ways. Look for people-pleasers and those with low self-esteem, who apologize often and seem to deem themselves unworthy of even existing. They’lltry to blend in, to belong—which means dressing and acting like those in their immediate social groups.
Teddy Bundy was the absolute master at identifying the compliant victim. His strategy was to pretend to need help and to ask young women for assistance. Sometimes, he’d even wear fake arm or leg plaster casts, or carry crutches. Teddy could get those gals to walk miles at a time, lugging boxes and all sorts before they even whispered a complaint.
Teddy wasn’t consistently great, though, and we can learn from that. For instance, he approached a young, pre-fame Debbie Harry in a public location, with witnesses, and had to practically beg her to get into his car. She even marched away from him at one point, forcing him to trail her—bad move, Ted—clear red flags. No wonder she fought back when she noticed that he’d removed the internal handles from his car. You already know that Debbie escaped and I confess I’m pleased that Teddy lost that one. Anyway—compliance. Look for it and reap the rewards.
Traits that make a good victim also include clear weaknesses that you can exploit. Some examples: drug addicts, who’ll do almost anything on a promise; people with mental illnesses; poor people and the homeless, obviously. Get to these people before the God-botherers pluck them from the street and buy them a Greggs in exchange for singing hosanna. Who even is Hosanna? I digress.
People who are motivated to disappear also make great victims—petty criminals and parolees, for example. People on bail. Look out for anything that limits the person’s options or has conditioned them to be victims already.
In terms of the physical location of victims, a mid-sized city that is outside of your own police jurisdiction is best. Somewhere you can reach and return from within 6–8 hours. The rationale here is that optimum kill-time is around 3 a.m. in the still of the night. You can travel to the site two or three hours before, enjoy a comfortable kill-window, and be home in time to secure the alibi that your regular routine provides. It is my advice to never transport a victim—alive or dead—primarily becauseof the inevitable forensics trail that this will leave behind. Transporting a live victim also offers them a higher chance of escape, more opportunity for the public to spot you together and an increased risk of creating circumstantial and digital evidence.
Where and how to find your victims
In this day and age, finding your victims simply couldn’t be easier. A plethora of options is open to you, and you really can have fun with this stage of the process. Personally, I like to find my victims organically: a chance encounter on a train, a stroll along the beach, a pleasant wander in the park. But initially, a more distanced approach can be better for emerging talent.
There are the obvious places to find victims online: dating apps, social media and forums—and I would recommend those for beginners, but please ensure you read all my advice carefully before conducting any online recruitment. As your skills grow, however, you might enjoy thinking a little more outside of the box.
You can even have your victims find you.
One method that has delivered consistent results for me over the years is one I have affectionately dubbed the Samaritan Technique. Inspiration for the Samaritan came from a casual stroll I took one day when I was visiting my cousin at university. I visited as often as I could, despite finding the local accent thuggish-sounding.
During that visit, I had cause to cross a bridge close to Bobby’s university. A truly stunning piece of Victorian architecture spanning the Big River. I was appalled to see that this feat of engineering had been littered with dozens of little laminated notes. These pastel-colored placards had been secured with cable ties to every piece of metalwork as far as the eye could see. My initial thought was that it was another “celebration” by people forcing their pride upon the world. I ripped several down, and only then did I notice that the notes had handwriting on them.We arehere for YOU, one note proclaimed. The next read,Suicide is never the answer—call St. Martin’s on 0800 968 968.
As I continued my walk, I pictured people standing on the wrong side of the railings, looking down at the mangling murk below. Desperate people, ripe for death. Within six weeks, I’d covered four cities with new notes. Not long after that, Sean called me from that same beautiful bridge.
Chapter Seven
The dog shakes uncontrollably in the lift, and the moment the doors open, he drags Sam out on to the fourth floor. It’s largely empty, save for a few tired-looking officers at desks, who Sam suspects have been here all night. They don’t bat an eyelid as she fills the kettle and lifts the dog on to the sofa.
“Aw, who’s this?” Chloe Spears comes over and pats him on the head.
“This is little… erm…” Sam stutters. “The cleaners are in at home, and we have an appointment at the vet’s in an hour, so I just thought…” Sam shrugs, takes a seat next to the little dog and checks her work emails as she waits for her tea to cool. There’s one from HR, inviting her to “Well-being Wednesday.” She rolls her eyes and archives it. Her heart skips a little when she sees a message from Claire, the linguist she’d worked with on a case years ago and who has agreed to help.
Subject: Initial Thoughts
Hi Sam,
I’ve done an initial read ofHow to Get Away with Murderand you’ll have my report by end of next week. I wanted to send you my preliminary thoughts and let you know straight away that I believe we can tentatively conclude that Denver grew up in northeast England. This is because:
1. In his chapter about Jono, Denver claims he was wearing a black cats T-shirt. Most readers would take this to mean a top featuring black cats. However, the Black Cats is a nickname for Sunderland AFC.
2. Denver’s uncle says “nowt as queer as folk,” which is common parlance in the North East. Other northern phrases such as “dinner nanny” are also used.
3. When describing making a cup of tea, Denver uses the word “mast” instead of “brew.” This is an odd lexical variant I’ve not encountered before. I suspect it could be a mishearing of “mash” (Yorkshire) that has grown in isolated usage within a tiny pocket of a northern county over generations.
4. I’m noticing a strange use of title case, too. For example: Big River and Still of the Night. I can’t explain this yet, but I’m bringing it to your attention in case these words crop up elsewhere in your investigation.
More from me soon,
