“Nobody ever says I want to be a junkie when I grow up…”
While nowhere near as popular, or as parodied, as the “this is your brain on drugs” spot, the former 80's PSA gets much closer to the message. The meth addict, the crack addict, the alcoholic, the heroin addict—none of them woke up with a burning desire to throw away their life behind a cycle of lies, loss, and shame.
The same is true of the men and women who break bad. The thief, the drug dealer, and the killer often spring from the deep reservoirs of damage, mental illness, and/or addiction.
There are, of course, exceptions. White-collar villains: embezzlers, inside-traders, and fraudsters are entirely different in method and motive. The majority of corporate criminals defraud to meet expectations, (societal or professional) or to cover lifestyles beyond their means. A few defraud to cover addiction, or to exercise an extreme grievance, but this is extraordinarily rare.
"I was raised in the pro-jects, roaches and rats…" Jay-Z, Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
The drug dealer is currently the most conspicuous criminal in the U.S., anyway. But contrary to prevailing opinion, no drug dealer starts out as a Heisenberg or an Escobar. Almost all drug dealers start out hungry.
The kid who joins a crew as a runner so he can eat every day, becomes the lookout to buy a warm coat, becomes the handoff to buy a new pair of shoes, becomes a cook to support the family, becomes a soldier to protect his crew/clique/turf.
To paraphrase Marcus Aurelius, whether it is Bed-Stuy, the south side of Chicago, or West Reno, poverty is the ultimate mother of crime.
Both Elsworth “Bumpy” Johnson and Alphonse “Scarface” Capone came from working-poverty. Both had explosive tempers, forcing both to leave home early. Both faced early 20th Century racism and severely limited prospects. Prohibition booze-running must’ve looked like hitting the lotto to Capone. The heroin trade would’ve looked the same to Johnson. Two decades later, the cocaine 70’s and 80’s had to look like the California Goldrush to Jon Roberts, George Jung, and Griselda Blanco.
“Billy wasn’t born a criminal, Clarice. He was made one through years of systematic abuse.” Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs
Aileen Wuornos, Florida Department of Corrections, c. 1992.
Doctor Lecter’s quote above is based on author Thomas Harris’ years of study with the FBI behavior scientists who examine serial murderers. The “serial” distinction is important. We’re not talking crime-of-passion killings.
The spouse who kills a cheating or abusive partner, the business person who kills a pilfering associate, the barroom brawler who kills in a drunken fistfight actually have the lowest recidivism rate of any criminal subgroup. No, we’re talking about the monsters.
Undiagnosed/untreated mental illness is a common thread across serial cases.
The Behavior Analysis Unit has been part of almost every serial-killer investigation dating back to the 1970s. What the BAU found in nearly every case, is deep-rooted childhood trauma. Richard Kuklinski, the infamous “Iceman,” is believed to have killed between 70 and 200 people. He also suffered profound childhood abuse—a sibling was beaten to death but investigators were unable to determine if Kuklinski’s mother or father was responsible. Neither were ever charged due to lack of evidence.
Aileen Wuornos murdered 7 men. She also endured years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her maternal grandparents. Her brother abused her through her teens. A cycle of abusive relationships as she reached adulthood compounded the damage.
Henry Lee Lucas was convicted of killing 11. He suffered horrific childhood abuse at the hands of his homicidal mother. In addition to ADHD and dyslexia, his IQ was assessed at 85. If those factors were not enough, he was subjected to psychotropic experimentation in prison.
“Well, ya know, for me, the action is the juice.” Michael Cheritto, Heat
Of all the criminal subgroups, thieves are the most “a thing of themselves.” Whether it is car thieves, burglars, stick-up kids, or bank robbers, thieves rank among the highest recidivists. On the surface there’s no unifying thread. There is not enough incidence of poverty or childhood trauma to draw causation. Addiction, while certainly part and parcel of the lifestyle, especially among armed perpetrators, is not consistent enough for relationship.
However, deeper behavior analysis yields common threads. With the potential for brutality and death, armed robbers tend to be the most aggressive, narcissistic, yet predisposed to hopelessness based on marginalization. They are often intelligent and athletic with strong dexterity. In short: smart, physical, and highly capable at thinking on their feet. They are drawn to life-and-death situations where they can (must?) take charge, assert themselves as dominant in stark contrast to the larger world where they feel powerless and persecuted.
William Guess, the Polo Shirt Bandit, was captain of the high school basketball team, made good grades without studying, and exuded confidence. Yet as friends graduated college and began careers, Guess worked as a delivery driver. By his thirties he was a sometimes car dealer, and habitual gambler. If his first bank robbery only yielded $1000 the adrenaline must’ve been a potent rush. He hit his second bank weeks later. When an early robbery failed apart due to a dye pack that ruined the money, Guess became a master of takeover robberies.
In Heat Neil McCauley, (DeNiro) asks, “Do you see me doin’ thrill-seeker liquor store robberies with a Born To Lose tattoo on my chest?” Pachino’s Vincent Hanna answers “no,” but McCauley’s actions demonstrate that the only real difference is the amounts of money in play.
Carl Gugasian, the Friday Night Bandit, and most prolific bank robber in American history, was an SOG trained Army officer. He was also an electrical engineer with advanced degrees in systems analysis, statistics and probabilities. And, he robbed 50 banks over a thirty-year period netting $2 million—much, much less than he would’ve made applying himself in any of his legitimate disciplines.
Adrenaline addiction or simply thrill-seeking? Identity quest? Maybe none of the above. There is data to suggest sexual dysfunction is a common threat to all armed robbers. This makes Donald Westlake, (aka Richard Stark) prescient in depiction of his master-heister, Parker and his work/sex cycles. Which brings us back to whatever it is that gets your character out of bed in the morning—whether they admit it or not—is what they are, regardless of what they wanted to be when they grew up.
Except counterfeiters. Counterfeiters always intend to be counterfeiters. They’re phreaks.
Promotional still shot from "The Usual Suspects," and is owned Gramercy Pictures, et al it and all other photos are used for instructional/educational purposes only as covered by the Fair Use Doctrine.
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