Alone and inside themind of aserial killer

- Serial KiIIers: Up Close andVery Personal.

But why would a privatelyeducated daughter of achartered surveyor in Surreywant to spend her timespeaking and listening to thesedangerous killers?

Quite disturbingly, MissRedstall first became interestedin criminal psychology and theminds of killers when she wasjust a child.

She said: 'A close familyfriend, when I was Ii, wasgunned down along withanother familyi she explained."It was a highlypublicised casein the mid-80s and four peoplewere shot in total. TWo werehlled. It had a major effect onme and I became interested inthe most ranped minds of our

society. Killers and in particu-lar the most depraved of all -serial killersl'

Despite her interest in seria-lhllers, the fust rime MissRedstall came face to face withone was an 'absolutelyftightening' experience, shesaid. "I felt as if I was ClariceStarling in Silence of theLambs," she added. "shaking inmv shoes, I wore no make up,my hat in a baseball cap and ajacket buttoned up to my chin.Basicaily i looked like a boy. Ifaked a very bad Americanaccent as I didn't want him toknowl was English."

Itt not surprising consider-ing the fust man she inter-viewed was Wayne Ad:m p616,who mutilated and killed fourwomen and walked into a

California police station in1998 with one of his victirrlssevered breasts in his pocket.

Other killers Miss Redstallcame face-to-face with includ-ed Bobby Joe Long whoassaulted and murdered atleast l0 women; Gary RayBowles, who killed six men inthe space of a yea4, and RobinGecht, who was a member ofthe terri$ring Ripper Crew.

But the worst of them all,Miss Redstall said, was KeithHulter lesperson, who wasknowrr as the HappyFace Ki_llerbecause he sent tauntingletters to newspapers andthe police, signing off with asmileyface.

"He made my skin crawl ashe seemed so proud ofwho hemurdered and howi' she said."It was almost as if he enjoyedreliving the whole processwhile talking to me abour it.,

\4rith these hardened killersrefusing to open up to psychia-trists, prosecutors and otherauthority figures, itt a wonderhow Miss Redstall hasmanaged to get material for anentire book. This she puts downto her'friendlypersonality' andnot showing any fear.

Despite admitting she wasfriendly towards these killers,Miss Redstall said she neverever became friends with them,despite many media reports,particularly those surroundingher relationship with Wayne49* Ford, suggestingotherwise,

"I had to compartmentalisethe crimes they did from themain reason I was interviewingthem - that was trying to un-derstand how an innocentchild can turn in to a ravingmonsteri' she said. "I didn'tever 'befriend' them howeverthe media seems to have inter-preted it that way.

"I have a friendly rapportwith everyone I have ever in-terviewed whether it be a coro-ne4 ajudge, a cop, a psycholo-gisf a victim that lived, a familymember, a prosecutor.

"If any of those people wantto say 'Victoria's a friend ofmine' just because I've sDentdays interviewing them, wellthat's no problem with me.However. I certainly wouldn,tsay that I am friends with anyserial killer."

So does Miss Redstall feelshe is any closer to understand-

"In my opinion, no-one isborn a serial killer, they wereformed," she said. "There is alethal cocktail that goes intothe 'making of a monster' andthat is usually a bad childhood,filled with abuse, neglec!abandonment. Sometimes abrain injury can add to *te mixalong with alcohol or drugs.

"I am not saying that all peo-ple with a childhood like thisgrows up andwants to kill, I amjust saying that nearly all of theones I have met so fa4 have hada very similar story to tell abouttheir childhood. Finding all thisout has made me have a.betterunderstanding as to .whatmakes a serial killerl'

As harrowing and gruesomeas the stories

-of the men Miss

Redstall interviewed may be,there is little doubt that SerialKillers: Up Close and VeryPersonal will be popular.

As Christopher Bary-Deewrites in the foreword to thebook, serial killers "capturepublic attention b.ecause *teyterri-ff the neighbourhoodS inwhich they trawl and prey onvictims. They personiS the hu-man capacity for evil for theyare the stuff of our worst night-mares and their stories putbums on seats in cinemasaround the worldi'

But Miss Redstall, who iscurrently halfi,lray through hersecond book, also about serialkillers, says she wants to domuch rnore than simply enter-tain people with her findings.

She hopes they will discour-age women from going downthe route of prostirution, whichis where most serial killers shemet found their victims.

"Most of these women wereprostitutes and I didn't sugarcoat it by calling them some-thing else," she said. ',Theychose that profession, a verydangerous one I might add.

"I don't want anyone tothink that these men climbedinto people's homes at nightand took chilfuen or old peopleout ofttreir beds. None ofthemwould have done that. I amvery clear with why they killedthese types of victims and howtheydid it.

"I hope this will scarewomen enough to not evencontemplate a job like this andtherefore choose anothercareer pathJ'

I Serial Killers: (fn Ctnsc

by Rebecca Younger

IT'S hard to imagine why any-one would want to meet aserial hller, 1et alone spendthousands of hours in theircompany but that's exactlywhat Esher-bom joumalist andactress, Victoria Redstall, doesfor a living.

Miss Redstall, rr:ho attendedClaremont Fan School, got updose and personal with fivemass murderers on deatl rowwhen she was helping to makea documentaryin the US.

Ihe 36-vear-old, who uav-dled to Califomia when shems 19 to studrbroadcast jour-ulism and now [ves in StudioCq'. has just had a book pub-lished about her eryeriences

F,i1.:r.':

ii:t:,...i5

i a R.e ds t a lUro m Esh.er, * Xffiwith notorious s eriat kilters (R"f, siif_sff_;Al' riiio _rl