#bourgoin

Serial killers have been known to be among the most prolific pseudologues, and all serial killers lie about their crimes. Bourgoin was once asked, in a television report, about this propensity for deception. Elsewhere in the segment, he implied that he was in the midst of helping to solve a series of murders, and claimed that he had extracted 'confessions' from Schaefer, Toole and Kemper when he interviewed them. He was presented as a 'profiler'. Bourgoin was seated behind a large desk in a sombre room, and looked up earnestly at his interviewer, whom he addressed in a regretful tone. 'Very often, serial killers are extremely manipulative,' he said. 'Most of the time, whatever remorse they claim to have isn’t sincere. It’s part of their habit of lies. These are confirmed liars, since their earliest childhood.' I have watched this moment, and rewound and watched it again, a number of times. Often I think I detect a glimmer of recognition in Bourgoin’s eyes, but it is instantaneously suppressed, or shunted aside, giving way to a blank and slightly quizzical stare. More than anything, he appears to be astonished.'