Nevertheless, Amanda makes sure to keep her emotions out of it. “I never forget who they are. I never let them get into my head. They are like any other interview subject. It’s about keeping a distance, about being an observer and not a participant, no matter how hard they try. Many of the killers themselves talk about the adulation they get, and some of them actually question the sanity of their so-called groupies.

"I have never fawned over them, not ever offered them anything beside a question and answer type of scenario. I kept our relationship professional, always about the psychology of the serial killer mind—and the variations that that entails. Of course they will still try, like Bobby Joe Long proposing marriage, but it’s all part of the game for them, and, really, in prison they have little else to occupy their time.”

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She has received a number of personal threats, but perhaps the strangest came when she offended serial killer Roy Norris. How? By calling him boring.

“When I first began writing to killers, I was corresponding often with Roy Norris, but I found him a little less stimulating than other killers. I felt that all he did was complain about anything and everything, even down to the way I folded my letters. I mentioned this to someone in passing, and a groupie of Norris’s actually told him what I had said. So, within a week or so, I received a rather nice copy of a charcoal drawing from Norris. On the back of the artwork was a threatening letter, complaining, once again, and asking why I would write to him and ask him questions if I found him boring. He then went on to threaten me, saying he wish he could meet me in person so he could force an ice pick into my ear—just like he had done to his victims.”

In her 20 years of work, her original feeling has been proven time and time again: serial killers blend in very easily with society: “It’s all part of the game they like to play. People expect serial killers, or any type of violent criminal, to be some sort of drooling madman. We think that we could pick them out of a crowd, but in all honesty they are just like the rest of us. Think about it—would a hitchhiker get into a car with someone who was scary? No. They get into the car with the friend-looking guy, like Ted Bundy, or Fred and Rose West–a 'lovely' middle-aged couple in England who brutally tortured and murdered 20 girls. Serial killers want to appear charming. They want to try and gain your trust, like the spider lures the fly—then they pounce.”

You can visit Amanda’s website and check out her books at amandahoward.com.au.

Amanda Howard: The Serial Killer Whisperer

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