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INTRODUCTIONWHY I WROTE THIS BOOK,AND HOW TO USE ITa young woman named Susan “Sue” Curtiswent missing from an otherwise very safe college campus.She was 15 years old and attending a youth conference atBrigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where I was arookie police officer.I conducted the initial investigation into herdisappearance. We interviewed friends and family for cluesand learned that she’d gone back to her room to clean hernew braces. But when I searched her room, her toothbrushwas dry. She had never made it back.We could account for some of her activity (her lunchticket had been used), but we were limited in what we couldreconstruct—this was before cameras were ubiquitous oncampuses and cell phones kept us all connected.We talked with her family. I still remember theirfathomless pain and desperation. Their trauma wasdevastating and sad, so sad.Sue was never found, and eventually all reasonable leadswere exhausted. But the mystery of her disappearancealways bothered me because I had been on duty that night,ON JUNE 27, 1975,

patrolling the campus, and somehow felt partiallyresponsible. I kept a copy of the case file containing a largephotograph of her, and for years afterward, I would scancrowds, looking for a face that even remotely resembledhers. I kept the file, too, to remind me of my failure toprotect that innocent soul.Years passed, and I went on to become an FBI agent.Then one day, I got a call from a Salt Lake City investigator.“There’s something you should know,” he told me. “Wenever found Sue Curtis. But we know who took her.” He wenton to say that a good-looking young man had been drivingaround campus in a Volkswagen that night, looking for avictim. That man had finally admitted to kidnapping andkilling Sue Curtis. His name was Theodore “Ted” Bundy, aman who eventually would confess to the murder of 35young women in four different states.It’s still hard to think about the almond-eyed girl withlong hair whose photo I looked at day after day . . . whosediary I read . . . whose clothing I smelled for signs of whereshe might have been . . . whose shoes I felt for moisture ordirt as I desperately looked for any possible clue to herwhereabouts. It’s very possible that I had seen her killer thatnight driving about on campus. I would have looked twice athis car for not having a BYU student or faculty sticker—butmany didn’t that day, as there were so many visitors oncampus. No illegal activity was seen or reported. It was likeany other day, except that on this day there was adangerous personality on campus: a predator and serialkiller who would go on to kill many times more.BYU is one of the safest campuses in the country, yetthere had been an abduction and a life taken. How had thishappened, and who would do such a thing? The realizationthat one person can do so much damage, not just to victimsbut also to their loved ones, was chilling. I was all of 22, apolice officer in uniform, when I first truly understood thatthere are dangerous personalities on this planet, and that

because of them, we can never be completely safe. Ishudder to think what Sue Curtis, all of 15, was made tounderstand that night, alone with a predator, before shedied.I am convinced that this singular event drove me yearslater to serve as a criminal profiler in the Tampa Division ofthe FBI and later in the FBI’s elite National Security DivisionBehavioral Analysis Program. I felt compelled to understandcriminal and abnormal behavior, and this objectivedominated much of my Bureau career. Sue Curtisdisappeared on my watch. Those were my words and initialson that investigative report. That tragic event drove mypassion to seek answers from those who knew best: thecriminals themselves and their victims.What I learned from them, over a period of 4 decades, isthat there are certain personalities who hurt people themost. Over and over, they are responsible for crime, fortorment, for misery, for financial losses as well as for loss oflife. This book is about those dangerous personalities thatcause us so much pain and suffering. What I learned aboutcriminals, abnormal behavior, and dangerous personalitiesyou should know also, because it may save your life.THE REALITY OF DANGEROUS PERSONALITIESBy now, we’re familiar with the grim headline: Lone killerwalks into an office building, classroom, campground, orother area and, seemingly without provocation, opens upwith an assault rifle or other weapons, killing or maimingscores of innocent victims. And after each of these events,after the mayhem is over and the victims are buried orpatched up (the latter no doubt traumatized for life, as aretheir families), the question is asked: “Who could dosomething like this, and could it have been prevented?”

When these violent events happen, they dominate thenews and preoccupy us for months (the massacres atVirginia Tech; at Columbine High School and Sandy HookElementary School; and in Oslo, Norway, to name just afew). Unfortunately, these horrible mass killings happen alltoo often. In America alone, they occur on average 18 to 20times per year.1 Coming at us with almost metronomicfrequency—more than one per month—such events arealmost numbing. “How many were killed this time?” we askincredulously. Was it 8, 16, 26, or 77 (as in Utøya, Norway,on July 22, 2011, at the hands of Anders Behring Breivik)?Yet as staggering as these violent events are, they don’trepresent the full picture of who victimizes most people. Thesad truth is that for every mass killer, there are hundredsmore who kill one child at a time, one date at a time, or onespouse at a time—and these events sometimes barely makeit to page 6 in major newspapers. The mayhem that occursunder the radar, without making the national news, is thekind of crime, torment, and suffering many of us are morelikely to experience.The dangerous personalities among us harm us behindclosed doors at home, at church, at school, and in the office,often preying in secrecy on the unsuspecting or the trusting—and for the most part, no one finds out until it’s too late.When they do make the headlines, it’s on those rareoccasions when they get caught. They are responsible formany of the nearly 15,000 homicides, 4.8 million domesticassaults, 2.2 million burglaries, 354,000 robberies, and230,000-plus sexual assaults that occur annually in theUnited States, many of which go unreported andunpunished.2 Or, like Bernard Madoff, they may embezzlemoney from the elderly or even friends for years (on such agrand scale, in his case, that the economic wellbeing ofthousands was compromised). They can go undisturbed for

decades, destroying lives as convicted child rapist JerrySandusky did at Pennsylvania State University.Think back to those times in your own life when someonestole something from you or took hurtful advantage of you.Perhaps your house was burglarized or your car was brokeninto. Perhaps you dated someone who turned out to be toxic,or you were bullied at school or at work. Perhaps you’vebeen assaulted, mugged, or sexually abused and neverreported it, or if you did, nothing came of it. Much goes onaround us that is never reported, and when it is, it’s rare thatthose responsible are incarcerated. For 60 years,criminologists have known that fewer than 1 percent ofcriminals are ever incarcerated for their crimes.What this means for us is that most of the people whocan hurt us—these dangerous personalities—will avoidofficial scrutiny, wreaking havoc in our lives without evergetting caught, or persisting for years before they’restopped. And that’s just physical harm. Not all wounds arephysical. Most of the people who cause us harm will also doit emotionally, psychologically, or financially. They, too, aredangerous personalities because they put us at risk in theirown way.HOW FOUR DANGEROUS PERSONALITIESCAME TOGETHERWhile working for the FBI as a profiler, I began to see apattern emerging as to the personality types who seemed todominate our attention. These were people who wereconstantly making others miserable, breaking laws,engaging in risky behavior, taking advantage of or abusingothers, and in general causing pain and suffering—not once,not twice, but repeatedly.

Through my own efforts and with the guidance of others, Ilearned that there are certain personalities who will alwaysbe nasty, who are deceitful and manipulative, who derivepleasure from taking advantage of others, and who don’trespect people or laws. They are exhausting emotionally andcan be cruel, callous, and exploitative. And they will repeattheir behavior over and over without concern for thephysical or psychological damage they inflict on others.From investigating, arresting, and talking to rapists,murderers, kidnappers, bank robbers, white-collar criminals,pedophiles, and terrorists, I learned, sometimes the hardway, that dangerous personalities can be very deceptive.They may look and act quite normal on the surface. Theymay even be intelligent, interesting, charming, andattractive. But they are always dangerous.In 1995, I met Kelly Therese Warren for the first time.Thirty years old, she lived in Warner Robins, Georgia, withher daughter and husband. Kelly had served in the militaryhandling secretarial duties and had been dischargedhonorably after serving her tour in Germany. Her husbandworked at a lumberyard, and she did various odd jobs,including babysitting and working at a convenience store.Kelly always had a smile for me and would welcome mewith a hug. What little food they had she willingly shared,and she always made sure to top off my glass of sweetenediced tea. She talked to me more than a dozen times over asummer, always with a smile.Kelly told me what life had been like as a US Army soldierstationed in Germany and what it was like to grow up poor inthe South. She was funny and cheerful and always quick toanswer my questions and fill in the gaps. For nearly a year,she provided my FBI colleagues and me with informationthat we used to pursue a criminal—and not just a criminal,but a Soviet-bloc spy. For a year, we followed Kelly’s everyword. Every bit of information she enthusiasticallyvolunteered, we pursued.

But something wasn’t right. Nothing Kelly was telling uswas panning out. It took a long time to figure out becausemost of the leads were in Europe, not in the United States.Finally, we were able to confront her with the facts. That’swhen we learned that not only had she lied, but that it wasshe who had placed her nation at risk. It was she who, in hermere twenties, at the height of the Cold War, had put all ofCentral Europe in danger by selling to the Soviet bloc highlyclassified war plans that she had typed.Kelly, with her sweet smile and sweet tea, was yet onemore example of how dangerous personalities can becharming, funny, and interesting, but they can also put awhole nation—or, in her case, a host of nations—at risk. Kellyis serving a 25-year sentence for committing espionage.These individuals are flawed not only in personality butalso in character—that is, in morality and ethics. In essence,they can’t be trusted to tell you the truth, to care about andprotect you, or to keep you safe. And because of their flaws,invariably their behavior leaves behind a debris field ofhuman suffering.Over time, I came to realize that there were fourpersonality types responsible for most of the harm we wereseeing. These four dangerous personalities daily put us atrisk financially, emotionally, or physically, and they are thepersonalities we will focus on in this book:The narcissistic personalityThe emotionally unstable personalityThe paranoid personalityThe predatorMY INTENTION

Dangerous Personalities is my attempt to share with youwhat I know about those who will hurt you. Dangerouspersonalities are all around us. They may be your neighbors,friends, boss, date, spouse, relatives, or parent. They may becommunity leaders or professionals responsible for youreducation, money, health, or safety—and that is why wehave to be particularly on guard.Evil, crime, or suffering comes at us in many ways, andrarely does it wave a flag or blow a whistle to say, “Getready, I’m coming!” In fact, from my own experience as anFBI Special Agent, I know that criminals are incredibly adeptat getting close to us so they can take advantage. DennisRader, also known as the BTK killer, hid in plain sight for 30years. Living in Park City, Kansas, near Wichita, Rader was achurch council leader and dog catcher/compliance officer forthe city. He was also a serial killer (at least 10 victims) wholiked to bind, torture, and kill—thus the BTK appellation—something he kept secret from his wife and kids as well asfrom city officials and his church for 3 decades. DavidRussell Williams, a decorated Canadian Forces colonel, alsohid a secret from his wife and his fellow officers: that he wasa serial rapist and killer. Or how about the scores of Catholicpriests who for decades hid their crimes of child abuse underthe robes of the clergy?It’s cases like these that make us wonder, whom can wetrust? How can we detect and avoid harm before it happens?In the end, we must rely on our own innate abilities to sensedanger, our powers of observation, and the behaviors ofothers that alert us that something isn’t right.Sometimes, the only person making the key observationsthat may save you is you, sitting next to that odd or pricklyperson in a cubicle at work or behind that closed door athome. Consider the 2013 case of Ariel Castro, who held,tortured, and raped three girls in his house for more than adecade (more than 3,600 days—just think about that).Within hours of his arrest, neighbors spoke to news reporters

of how bewildered they were, as Castro was “known as asunny face, someone who was good with children.”4 Oneneighbor who lived two doors down and had known Castrofor 22 years said, “I feel a little guilty, I should have spottedit.”5But what if those neighbors, family members, or hisfellow musicians and band members (Castro played theguitar and sang) had been better observers? Most people,unfortunately, are simply not motivated to look closer. Infact, society frowns on meddling in other people’s business,and frankly, most people simply don’t know what to look for.Sadly, social blindness is the rule, not the exception.I don’t want you to be victimized. I don’t want you to gothrough what I have witnessed and what so many havesuffered. I want you to have a happy, fulfilling life. But Iknow there are dangerous personalities out there, everready to torment you or take what you value. If you haveany doubt, just read the newspaper, and you’ll know why wehave to be prepared.Invariably, a person who has been victimized later asks,“How could this happen to me? Why didn’t I see the signs?”We’ve all experienced this, including me. While hindsight is20/20, foresight is mostly blind. No one has taught us whatto look for. We who work criminal cases know that there arealmost always personality traits or behavioral cues that, tothe informed, say, “There are issues here, pay attention,beware, or get away”—but either they weren’t recognized orpeople chose to ignore them.This is where Dangerous Personalities comes in. I want tohelp you anticipate when someone is going to try to takeadvantage of you or hurt you. Safety is our responsibility. Itcannot be outsourced, and if we try to do so, we’ll burdened, mental health clinics are swamped, thecourts still let too many get away, and, as already

mentioned, the majority of those who do wrong rarely getcaught. Thus our safety is up to us.How nice it would be if we could just block theseindividuals out of our lives as easily as we do spam or popup messages on the Internet—with one click. But we can’t.That means we have to be on guard. I want to share thisinformation with you because we don’t have experts at ourside 24/7 to turn to and ask, “What do you think, is hedangerous?” “Is he a good person?” “Can I trust her to carefor my child?” “Should I invest with him?” “Should I let herbe my roommate?” “Does this manager have the capacity toruin my company?” “Should I bring him home and let himspend the night?” These decisions are our responsibility, yetfew of us are prepared to assess others properly in order toanswer these questions. When we fail to answer them today,we may find the sad answer on the front page of tomorrow’snewspaper.Now you can take an active role in ensuring your safety.Dangerous Personalities provides you with expert advice ina simple, practical way so that you can take control of yourlife. I want to help you learn how to assess others for flaws ofcharacter or personality to reduce the chance that you’ll betaken advantage of emotionally, psychologically, financially,or physically. Benjamin Franklin said it best: “An investmentin knowledge pays the best interest.” I would only add thatan investment in this kind of knowledge may save your life.A NOTE ABOUT TERMINOLOGYSome readers may wonder why I chose to use nonclinical terms such aspredator and emotionally unstable to describe two of the dangerouspersonalities in this book. This is a valid question.I wanted to use terms that laypeople could understand immediatelyand that would transfer easily across cultures. It would have been veryeasy (and perhaps beneficial for book sales, as some friends suggested)

to use the term psychopath to describe the predator. Unfortunately, theterm psychopath has become so overused that even some professionalsuse the term carelessly, when the more discerning would tell you thatconduct disorder, sociopath, antisocial personality disorder, or, as theWorld Health Organization prefers, dissocial personality disorder wouldbe more accurate or precise.3The medical and mental health literature clearly differentiatesbetween a psychopath, a sociopath, an individual with antisocialpersonality disorder, and an individual with conduct disorder. To labelsomeone using those particular terms, one must be very aware of thespecific criteria established by the mental health community or byresearchers such as Robert Hare.As complex as this is for professionals, it is more so for the lay reader.That’s why I decided to use the term predator, which encapsulates thefact that we are dealing with individuals who prey on others, takeadvantage of others, and have little regard for rules or for the rights andsanctity of others.Similarly, terms such as borderline personality, histrionic, conductdisorder, or bipolar disorder are a mystery to most people not familiarwith the full clinical meaning of these terms. So I use the appellationemotionally unstable to encapsulate the essence of this personality sothat the average person, and that includes me, can understand.I am also aware that some psychological terms, such as borderline orhistrionic, have become so highly charged with negative meanings andconnotations that they stigmatize or are used pejoratively

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S A N Y TI M E YO U UN DERTA K E A N I N TEL L EC TUA L j ou rn ey , t h ere are so man y p eop l e t o t h an k . Th e b i b l i og rap h y i s fu l l of su c h