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A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

latimes.com

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Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#11

Post by adrianmonk »

archeantus wrote: post #7

Kind of sickening how he builds up his ego and tells him he loves him. Seems like that kind of treatment could potentially skew the accuracy of the confession. “Hmm, I like being loved and praised and fed milkshakes here in prison, I’m going to keep talking, even if it isn’t true!”

I agree that it could, but I feel like this might be one of those situations where you just have to choose between very imperfect alternatives. If you use techniques like this, you might get wrong information. If you don't, you might get no information at all.

Maybe sometimes it's better to get very unreliable information and try to confirm it independently, the classic example being if they say something only the killer would know like where the body is buried.

Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#12

Post by daveFNbuck »

archeantus wrote: post #7

Kind of sickening how he builds up his ego and tells him he loves him. Seems like that kind of treatment could potentially skew the accuracy of the confession. “Hmm, I like being loved and praised and fed milkshakes here in prison, I’m going to keep talking, even if it isn’t true!”

There's nothing you can do that won't potentially skew what a person says. They've managed to verify at least 57 confessions so far, so that seems like a pretty good result even if the other 57 are fabricated.

Personally, I'm not bothered by building up the serial killer's ego. The important thing about imprisonment is that he's prevented from killing more people.

Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#13

Post by rjf72 »

e40 wrote: post #6

Pressed about his life story, Little traced the urge to kill to his youth. He said he got his first erection in kindergarten when he watched his teacher touch her neck. Later in grade school, he dreamed of killing a girl who stroked her neck while teasing him. He said it, but I have trouble believing that. There had to be something before that, perhaps something too far back to remember?

Let's imagine a hypothetical. Imagine we take a fresh planet, mostly identical to Earth. And we populate it with 1 billion infants, a billion robotic baby sitters, and no external influence. Our robotic Rosies will all behave identically and simply ensure the children do not starve and receive a homogeneous education. All will also be raised in mostly homogeneous settings. Do you believe that there would be no murderers, or others engaged in grossly deviant behavior in this world?

It's a fun thought experiment for quite a lot of social (and economic) issues really because it makes you consider notions of nurture vs nature and how many things are likely to emerge even without the preconditions which we have which do make them much more likely. For instance I'd certainly agree if we took 1% of our Rosies and forced them to sexually and physically abuse their charges, we'd certainly see a much larger ratio of those 1% end up as psychopaths, but that doesn't preclude the fact that, as I think you'd agree, you'd also certainly see plenty of psychopaths within the other 99% as well.

Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#14

Post by pessimizer »

archeantus wrote: post #7

Kind of sickening how he builds up his ego and tells him he loves him. Seems like that kind of treatment could potentially skew the accuracy of the confession. “Hmm, I like being loved and praised and fed milkshakes here in prison, I’m going to keep talking, even if it isn’t true!”

Very few details about the confirmations of the confessions here, and a lot of insistence that Little has a "photographic memory" a pseudoscientific claim which implies we shouldn't question whether these confessions are real.

There is a mutual relationship here: Little gets company, attention, and praise, police get to wipe 57 cases off their books that they have no intention of ever trying in a court, and this particular investigator gets lionized.

edit:

> After the confessions came the painstaking work — confirming killings. There won’t be time to prosecute Little for all the deaths, but authorities believe they can sufficiently tie him to a homicide to consider the case solved.

This is the entirety of the content detailing the confirmations that I can find in the article.

Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#15

Post by adventured »

pessimizer wrote: post #14
archeantus wrote: post #7

Kind of sickening how he builds up his ego and tells him he loves him. Seems like that kind of treatment could potentially skew the accuracy of the confession. “Hmm, I like being loved and praised and fed milkshakes here in prison, I’m going to keep talking, even if it isn’t true!”

Very few details about the confirmations of the confessions here, and a lot of insistence that Little has a "photographic memory" a pseudoscientific claim which implies we shouldn't question whether these confessions are real. There is a mutual relationship here: Little gets company, attention, and praise, police get to wipe 57 cases off their books that they have no intention of ever trying in a court, and this part…

They also noted this, without saying how they confirmed them:

> By his count, Holland and his team have confirmed 57 of Little’s 93 confessions, not including 21 in Southern California

That's a definitive statement. I agree that it would have been nice if the article had included a bit more regarding how they were confirmed (assuming it's reasonable to release such information - even if vague - at this point, as it may not be).

Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#17

Post by stebann »

It's amazing how can a professional solve this cases where others couldn't. Why there is so much hate towards women in US? I mean, particularly, these serial killers. Cases like this are rarely seen in South America, where violence has other drives (many times much less psychological).

Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#19

Post by [deleted] »

stebann wrote: post #17

It's amazing how can a professional solve this cases where others couldn't. Why there is so much hate towards women in US? I mean, particularly, these serial killers. Cases like this are rarely seen in South America, where violence has other drives (many times much less psychological).

[deleted]

Re: A Texas Ranger got a prolific serial killer to talk

#20

Post by santiagogo »

stebann wrote: post #17

It's amazing how can a professional solve this cases where others couldn't. Why there is so much hate towards women in US? I mean, particularly, these serial killers. Cases like this are rarely seen in South America, where violence has other drives (many times much less psychological).

Unfortunately (I am South American) I think you are wrong. Some of the most prolific serial killers have been South Smerican, but serial killers are not such a popular topic on the news here so it's not as widely known.

I would think it's also logical that serial killers tend to focus on women and children because they are generally easier to overpower than another male. There is probably also a sexual component to killing and I would guess that most serial killers tend to be heterosexual, hence why they mostly target women.

For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_numb...

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