Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives Read Online Free PDF Page A

other murderers, he very often has no criminal
    record and sometimes no history of violence whatsoever. He is an
    intelligent, careful, methodical killer.
    He is also someone who has always been a fabricator of reality.
    He is not your harmless garden-variety fibber but a compulsive,
    pathological liar whose lies are meant to get a reaction out of others:
    to inspire their admiration, to evoke their sympathy, to get him
    exactly what he wants. He makes up stories big and small, often
    lying about things for no readily apparent reason. But he is especially
    practiced at deceiving others about who he really is.
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E R A S E D
    He fabricates evidence to exaggerate his accomplishments, wealth,
    success, social standing. Sometimes he proudly displays phony busi-ness cards or diplomas, awards from military service he never earned,
    and other ‘‘proof’’ he needs to create the impression that he craves.
    He knows how to use words, lies, and actions to manipulate others.
    Manipulation—either subtle or overt—is a core feature of how he
    interacts with others.
    He leads what appears to be a normal and productive life and
    is often considered to be an exemplary citizen. But quietly, beneath
    the surface, unbeknownst to almost anyone, he has used all his
    well-honed abilities to lie, manipulate, and fabricate reality in order
    to commit the crown jewel of crimes, the perfect murder.
    His goal is to erase his victim—be it his wife, ex-wife, girlfriend, or
    lover— to expunge her from the record of his life. If she is pregnant
    with a child he does not want—and an unwanted pregnancy is an
    alarmingly common motive for eraser killings—he is killing two
    birds with one stone, eliminating what he views as dead weight
    dragging him down. In his mind, he is not really murdering a human
    being; he is simply rearranging the world to better suit his needs,
    to remove a major annoyance or let him make a fresh start of
    things.
    He harbors a cluster of psychological traits very unusual in the
    general public. He does not experience the almost universal psycho-logical reaction called fear. It is not that he is uncommonly brave or
    that he has ‘‘conquered’’ fear. He does experience an abstract, emo-tionally colorless sensation when put under great stress— especially
    if he feels caught in a situation he is not confident he can talk his way
    out of, when he is no longer in control of everyone around him. Most
    of the time, any sense of truly being afraid is more like a thought than
    a feeling. His heart does not beat faster, and he shows few if any signs
    of the emotion of fear. He knows about fear a bit like a colorblind
    person is aware of color: it is visible, but only as another shade of
    gray.
    Eraser killers employ cunning, stealth, and often meticulous plan-ning to overcome their trusting prey, frequently employing the
    agonizingly slow and terror-inducing method of suffocation or stran-gulation in order to minimize the type of messy crime scene evidence
    that could get them caught.

    Out of the Shadows
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    These killers represent a previously unrecognized subset of inti-mate partner murderers, different in distinct ways from other
    domestic killers:
    • Their killings are not committed in the violent rage or sudden
    loss of control that characterizes more classic domestic
    homicides. On the contrary, they kill with total calm, total
    control. If they leave behind any crime scene at all, it will be
    what criminal profilers refer to as ‘‘organized’’—just the kind of
    crime scene investigators do not expect to see when a domestic
    homicide is involved, for that is supposed to be the most
    ‘‘hot-blooded,’’ disorganized, and messy of crimes.
    • The eraser killer is a master of deceit and an expert manipulator.
    His killing is carried out in total secrecy (unlike many domestic
    homicides, which often are committed even though there are
    witnesses present) and then very highly