Tampabay: Q&A: M. Dwayne Smith, on the sniper

"He probably is enjoying the attention," said Smith, chairman of the criminology department at the University of South Florida. "As he becomes more brazen, he'll finally slip up. And when that happens, some evidence will emerge that allows them to capture him."

Smith isn't directly involved with the sniper investigation, but as an expert on serial killers and mass murderers, he's able to put himself in the shoes of D.C.-area authorities.

Seated at his desk, between framed movie posters from the films The Godfather and Crime & Punishment USA, Smith recently discussed topics ranging from the sniper to slasher films with St. Petersburg Times staff writer Jay Cridlin. Here are excerpts:

* * *

Give me a profile of the D.C. sniper.

I won't give you a profile, because we really don't know what the profile is at this point. In fact, that's sort of my concern, that this individual is breaking a lot of our conventions about profiles.

Typically, the person involved in this probably tends to be a white male. That's really what it comes down to. I sometimes flinch when I hear people saying, "The killer is yada yada yada." The more appropriate terminology is that the odds are he's a white male.

* * *

Everyone's on the lookout for a white van. Why doesn't this guy just rent a blue Honda?

There's two possible answers to that. One is that if he's still got it together, he's changed vans, and if he really wants to throw law enforcement off, he'll change weapons at some point, too. On the other hand, if he's really driven by some bizarre, attention-seeking motive, then he'll retain the van. He'll retain even the weapon that he's using, almost taunting the police and, in some larger sense, taunting the public. Everybody knows about him, and yet he's still out there able to do it.

One of the other unique aspects of this is the pattern of victimization. It's unlike any that we've really seen so far. There's some loose pattern that oftentimes strings victims together, and they just haven't been able to decipher it yet. That doesn't mean that there's not a pattern in the killer's mind, but we just haven't deciphered it.

* * *

Can we catch this person?

We will catch the person, as long as he remains active. And I'm going to continue to use the pronoun "he," because the strong odds are that it's a he. He will be caught.

The fact that this serial killer is using the sniping modus operandi makes it extraordinarily unique at this point. He seems to be good enough at what he does that it's going to take some cooperation on his part. But what is interesting is, among serial killers, we do see a certain "de-evolution" of their state of mind. Ted Bundy started out extraordinarily skilled at what he was doing and ended up horribly sloppy. There is a certain amount of mental decomposition. It causes them to become much more disorganized in their activities. That sets up their capture.

* * *

Is there anything people in Virginia and Maryland can do to protect themselves?

Without absolutely disrupting their daily lives, the answer is no. If they're going to go about their daily lives, they will be at some degree of reasonably minimal risk. I don't mean to downplay this at all, but it's like saying, "How can you protect yourself from lightning?" The answer is: Don't go outside and also hope that it never hits your house. That's about what they're faced with here because of the fact that he is traveling. It's not like you can avoid certain parts of town. This just doesn't have those kinds of characteristics, which, I might add, adds something to the public fear.

A little history: The zodiac killings in San Francisco had certain elements of this, as did the David Berkowitz/Son of Sam killings back in New York in the 1970s -- large degrees of public fear. The victims there weren't quite random, but the zodiac, especially, made very brazen attacks, oftentimes in broad daylight.

* * *

Have you ever met a serial killer?

No. No interest in doing so, either. But I have read transcripts and watched taped interviews, etc., with serial killers.

Would you have liked to have met or interviewed Aileen Wuornos, who was executed last week?

No, because I don't think that much would have been gotten out of it. She was incredibly emotionally and psychologically disturbed. The one thing that we know about serial killers as a group is that many of them are masters of manipulation. One of the things they start trying to decipher when you come in the room is, What do you want to hear? And whatever it is you want to hear, they manipulate the conversation so you get to hear it. I don't have a tremendous amount of confidence in my ability to match wits with a serial killer.

It's interesting that as we approach serial killing from more of a scientific perspective, we've developed more questions than we have answers, because in the final analysis, these are extraordinarily unique individuals.

Ted Bundy is associated with a famous quote where he said, "We're your sons, we're your next-door neighbors, etc." Statistically, that's far from the truth. When we start talking about profiles, a lot of our knowledge of serial killing comes from interviews with less than 50 serial killers. And that's an awfully small database.

* * *

In your mind, who is the worst serial killer of the last 50 years?

The top is awfully crowded. For the sheer horror of the crime scene that police walked into, it would probably be Jeffrey Dahmer. The one whose cold, calculating cruelty just really struck me as I read the case was Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, two killers that operated out of California who had a bunker that they would kidnap entire families in some cases and bring them there. It was very obvious that they killed children, they killed infants.

* * *

You teach a class on serial killing and mass murder. Are there gruesome aspects?

Typically, I avoid really gruesome displays in class. Gruesome displays oftentimes involve displays of bodies. I'm sensitive to the fact that those bodies are victims and that those victims have families. Some kids told me they're hoping to see some of the gory aspects of it. I ask them: "If one of these were your loved one, would you want them displayed in a college class?"

* * *

Are students distressed or disturbed by what they see in your class?

If they are, they don't necessarily tell me. They will tell me they're bothered by what they read. Just reading the stories in and of themselves are pretty disturbing. One young woman recently told me that she has learned not to study at night. I suspect others may use the same tactic that she does. It's not unlike reading a Stephen King novel.

* * *

On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, how do you rate "Red Dragon?"

I haven't seen it. I did not rush out the first week. I think Silence of the Lambs was an excellent movie. I give it high marks. Hannibal was a real disappointment.

* * *

Do you have a favorite slasher flick of all time?

I still think one that has had continued impact on American society is Psycho. It's changed women's shower behavior for generations. It was certainly horrifying at the time. And even some of the original slasher flicks -- I'm thinking the original Halloween, for instance, or maybe even Friday the 13th -- had their elements of terror and suspense. Did you see Road to Perdition?

* * *

I haven't seen it.

You missed a great movie. Tom Hanks works as a hit man for the mob. I asked my kids in class: "Do you consider him a serial killer?" Their answer was no. But he clearly fits all the definitions and characteristics: some guy who kills a number of people over a long period of time.

I think what came across in the movie that had kids confused is you never got the sense that he liked what he was doing. For him, it was just a pragmatic exercise. What does make serial killing unique is that there is a degree of satisfaction that's derived from it. It's a hunting for humans for emotionally satisfying reasons.

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