Compulsion Released by Substances

Some individuals struggling with an underlying compulsion to act do so only under the influence of various substances, primarily alcohol. The disinhibiting effects of alcohol, as well as other drugs, are well-known (Powers and Kutash, 1978; Mayfield, 1976). Alcohol, which is involved in many homicides (Wolfgang, 1958), is a cerebral depressant that reduces the discriminatory functions of the psyche and frees repressed or suppressed fantasies, feelings, and drives. Most aggression occurs at blood alcohol levels ranging from 0.1% to 0.35%; at higher levels the individual is too stuporous to attack anyone, and at lower levels there is no disinhibiting effect.

Bradford, Greenberg, and Motayne (1992) reviewed the relationship between alcohol and various types of criminal behavior. Pernanen (1976) provides an interesting discussion of alcohol’s direct physiological disinhibiting effects and their relationship to criminal behavior. The author also notes that in addition to disinhibition, alcohol and criminal behavior maybe related indirectly, as (1) symptoms of another psychological disorder such as antisocial personality, (2) a result of increased frustration because of substance use, or (3) a result of some intervening variable, such as sleep disturbance from chronic alcohol use. The overwhelming consensus is that many violent crimes, including murder, occur when individuals are intoxicated; in many cases, if it were not for the intoxication, the criminal acts may not have been committed.

In the following case, a young man’s long-standing compulsion to sadistically injure other men was acted on only when he was intoxicated. In fact, he stated that “I could not bring myself to do it unless I was drunk.”

Case 9.7: Compulsion to Kill Released by Alcohol

A 24-year-old male (GG) was arrested for the murders of two men which occurred within days of each other. The first victim (D) was a 17-year-old hitchhiker. When D got into the offender’s car, GG grabbed him, threatened him with a knife, and drove to a remote area. He made D undress, fondled his genitals, and made him perform oral sex. He then took a cigarette and burned the victim on the stomach. He next burned D’s hair with the cigarette while holding a knife to his neck. GG subsequently forced D out of the car and, with his cigarette lighter, set D’s hair on fire. While the victim was screaming, GG stabbed him repeatedly; he eventually drove off when it became apparent D was dead.

The second victim E, a 19-year-old male, was killed by strangulation. GG was “driving around looking for hitchhikers” and eventually picked up E.

I found him walking along the street. I wanted him to be with me. He was nice looking, about six inches taller than me. At first, I drove by and said to myself, “No.” I thought instead I would go, and I passed him again. I stopped and asked directions to some street. I then asked him to come [with me to] show me where the street was, and he agreed. I pulled over, and then I started to strangle him. He got out of the car, but I took my knife and pulled him over to me again and told him that if he did as he was told, he wouldn’t get hurt. I just wanted him to do as he was told. The boy said, “Okay, okay, don’t hurt me.” The guy was bigger than me.

I am just a little guy that people push around.

GG then tied E’s hands together and made him lie down. He ran his hand over E’s arms and head and said he felt embarrassed doing this.

I then drove to a dark place. He was crying and whining. I told him to stop that. Nothing he said could stop me now. I opened the boy’s shirt and pulled up his undershirt. I had him take off his shirt, his undershirt, shoes, socks, and pants. He looked scared. 1 was embarrassed and told him not to look at me. I know I should be a man, not a woman. How nice he looked.

I touched him and kissed his eyes. He opened one eye, and I said I would cut his eye out if he didn’t keep it closed. Then I thought to myself, how many new cars are like mine in the area. I am going to get caught. Maybe I should kill him with the knife. I told him I thought I should kill him because the police would catch me. The boy said, “I promise you I won’t tell.”

1 started touching the boy’s neck again. I thought that he had a nice neck. I then put my legs around the boy’s body and laid alongside him, touching his face. I thought to myself; this is a nice kid. 1 then had the desire to see what would happen iff squeezed his neck. I squeezed and the boy squirmed. I was afraid of getting caught. That’s why I thought of killing him. ft was all in my power to let him go or to kill him. It was up to me. I let him know that. I often have the thought of punching people in the mouth. I thought of setting him on fire, but I just squeezed his neck until he died and threw him out of the car and left.

The offender acknowledged that he had vague fantasies of hurting other men following homosexual encounters and that he preferred boys 16-17 years old. He said he had fantasies and “impulses” on many occasions when he was not intoxicated, but then he could contain the compulsion to hurt his partner. He could only act out homosexually or carry out the compulsion to kill when intoxicated.

I couldn’t do it unless I was feeling high. I had to be feeling good with alcohol to get the nerve up to do it. I would drink, get to feeling real woozy, and then drive my car around, looking to pick someone up. I would be driving along in the car. I would have nothing to do. I would just drive. When I saw young guys, I would stop and pick them up. I never wanted to hurt them, but yet I did. I always carry a knife in my car. I do it to scare some if I have to.

When I drink, I go out to look for someone. It is just a need. I want to be close to somebody, somebody that is more or less mine. It is not to hurt but to scare, but I guess to hurt too.

I only killed two people, but I hurt a lot of others. I once burned a few boys when I was a kid, and I also strangled some kids but didn’t kill them. I put my hands around their necks, and

I stopped. I pressed, but then I let them go. I once put a handkerchief around this kid’s neck and then I tried to strangle him. There was no anger while I tried to do it.

GG was raised in a middle-class family. His father was a dentist who died when the offender was six. His mother remarried a brutal person with a lower intellectual level who worked as the superintendent of a building. GG managed to maintain a marginal, but reasonably stable, life; he held a job (as a store clerk) and was able to have relationships with others. He reported a relationship with a girlfriend that ended just prior to the first murder, a rather typical aspect of compulsive-murder cases. After the relationship broke up, GG felt isolated, depressed, frustrated, and angry. “It upset me. I guess you could say I got depressed. I don’t know why we broke up. I still haven’t figured it out.” These feelings, plus the disin- hibiting effects of alcohol, released the compulsion to assault young men, which resulted in the unplanned and spontaneous murders and other sadistic acts that GG committed while intoxicated.

When interviewed under the influence of sodium amytal, GG elaborated on the emotions that went along with his sadistic fantasies, sadistic acts, and the two homicides. He explained that it made him “feel superior” when he controlled others. He described longstanding feelings of loneliness and nervousness around people. He had also had a preoccupation with fire since childhood. As he said on another occasion, “It was a sudden impulse when I did this. I don’t know. It’s something strange. I don’t know where it came from. It’s not revenge, but I felt strong when I did it. By burning people I felt happy.”